

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF -AMERICA. 













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THE 



CHRIST IN LIFE 



BY 



jTl. batchelder 



^Ev Abrui t^iOTj ^v, xai ij ^loij ^v to ipwq rwv oyd^pminov. 

— yoktt i: 4. 
Edv ds iv Tc5 yujr\ nepiTcaraJ/iev, wq AuT6(q iartv iv rip (pwrl^ 
xntvwviav e^o/jL£v fier d.XX-qXa)v^ xai rb atfia ^Irj<jou XptaTOo 
too Tlou Amoo xa-&apiZ£L rjfj.dq drco Ttdarjq dptapTiag. 

— / jfokn i:y. 




CHICAGO: 

THE AUTHOE, PUBLISHER. 

817 Washington Boulevard 

1887. 






T({) dyanuivTi 'fjfid<; xai kouffavrt -^fidq dno raJv dfiapTiwv ijfiwv 
iv Tip aipaxi Ahrov. — Rev. i: ^. 



THIS VOLUME, 

WITH ITS PREDECESSOR, 

Vera 'p'^o Divitiis, 

FOR 

MY CHILDREN 

AND 

children's children. 



Copyright, 

BY THE AUTHOR, 

1887. 



CONTENTS. 



Title i 

Dedication ii 

Table of Chapters iii 

Prolegomena f% iv 

Chapter I — The Ministry of Reconciliation 17 

" II — The Creed in the Deed 79 

" III — No Contrition — no Remission 139 

" IV — The Christ of Sympathy 173 

" V — The Anti-Christ in Self 241 

" VI — The Individual and the Society 321 

<» VII — The Possible in Christian Unity 373 

" VIII — The Ministry of Women 410 

" IX — The Scripture and the Print 432 

The Light of Life 447 



It seems to me, Socrates, even as it doth to thee, that to ascer- 
tain the truth concerning such questions is either impossible or 
very difficult in the present life ; yet not to investigate in every 
w^ay what has been affirmed concerning them — to abandon the 
search entirely before inquiry in every direction, — indicates a 
very weak man. For if it is possible to attain to any knowledge 
of such questions ; we must acquire it from others, or discern it 
for ovirselves : if both are impossible, then we must take the best 
human statement, and that which is most difficult to be refuted — 
upon this embarking as upon a dangerous raft to sail through 
life; unless we can be borne over more safelji and with less dam- 
age upon a stauncher conveyance — some divine statement. — ■ 
Phcedo. 

Each man, so far as he is a reasoning being, must find his intel- 
lectual anchorage in the harbor not for which he sails, but towards 
which he drifts — as it seems to xne, guided by the winds and tides 
of constitution, temperament, education, external circumstances 
and the like. 

Taking Christianity in its primary and true sense as we find it 
embodied in the words and life of Christ, this suppos*Dd conflict of 
its dictates with reasonable inquiry after trvith is nothing else than 

an ecclesiastical fiction He came to bear witness to 

the Truth, and which appealed to the reason and conscience of 

mankind It may be doubted, whether the chiefest and 

most mischievous propensities of our times are not dogmatic, rather 
than skeptical Skepticism is always found in pro- 
portion to the extent of the dogmatism — that has engendered it. 
— Evenings iviih Skeptics. — yohn Owen. 

To love truth for truth's sake is the principal part of human 
perfection in this Avorld, and the seed plot of all other virtues. 
— Locke. 



(4) 



PEOLEGOME]^A. 



Consciousness attests God, and consciousness is 
certitude.^ The witness is universal, as Cicero so 
emphatically declared, though some few, chiefly 
modern, have undertaken to deny it. Contradiction 

I. The formal proofs of the existence of God, independent of 
Scriptural asseveration, — God-inspired, may be enumerated as 
follows : 

(i) The Intuitional. — Belief in God is primary — constituent in 
the soul, coexistent with consciousness of self-existence. Con- 
sciousness of self-existence and consciousness of God's are pri- 
mary twin pulsations of being — first, self-ward, then God-ward. 

The capacity of becoming conscious of the Infinite is the dis- 
tinguishing endowment of the human mind. — Lotze's Micro- 
cosintis. 

There are in the moi'al order as in the mathematical, certain 
necessary truths, not known experimentally, but intuitively, 
recognized instinctively as true by the cognitive faculty — truths 
which are their own sufficient vouchers and justifications. — W. S. 
Lilly. 

(2) The Ontological. — Infinite space and time must compass 
the Infinite, or be compassed by Him. He is the Father of Eter- 
nity. Isaiah ix: 6. He inhabiteth Eternity. Zsaza// /wV.* /i^*. Such 
Scripture is only cited as confirmatory of independent conclusion. 

(3) The Cosmo- Teleological. — Order and design in the Universe 
evince a perfect Designer. 

(4) The Etiological. — Matter and Force must have originating 
cause — Causa caicsarum — First Cause. Not from inert chance — 
•'fortuitous concourse of atoms" — came the Universe of matter 
and mind. If so, whence chance and atoms. -^ Creation involves 
Creator; causes, Causer. 

By the First Cause is meant that which produces all things, and 
is itself produced of none. By the Absolute is meant that which 

(5) 



VI PROLEGOMENA. 

is in every denial. If said, it has been in the heart/ 
as wish, desire, for fear, — not in the intellect, for its 
self -consciousness it cannot nullify. In all religions, 
monotheistic and polytheistic, He —being is Person, 

exists in and by itself, having no necessary relation to any other 
being. By the Infinite is meant that which is free from all pos- 
sible limitations, than which a greater is inconceivable, and which 
consequently can receive no additional attribute or mode of exist- 
ence, which it had not from all eternity. — Bamfton Lecture. — 
Rioted by Maurice. 

(5) The Psychological. — Individual souls predicate their origin 
from the Parental Soul. 

(6) The Ethical and Religious. — The ability and the constant 

propensity to discriminate between right and wrong — conscience, 

involve absolute and indefectible standard in Conscience-Maker. 

"Conscience is the consciousness of God," says Julius Muller. 

Subject-object of supreme religious aspiration, adoration, appeal 

and service, must be Supreme. 

The intuition of causality, of intelligence, of right and wrong, 
and of goodness, supply our minds with the necessary concepts of 
infinite power, intelligence, justice and goodness; while the intui- 
tion of real being affirms, that these are necessarily the attributes 
of real being, and that being, endowed with these attributes, is 
God. — WinchelVs Science and Religion. 

(7) The Historical. — Men universally have expressed belief in 
One Supreme God, though some of them have believed .. at the 
same time -in the existence of "gods many," but as subordinate to 
the One Supreme. Human testimony is confirmatory of the dec- 
larations in the Scripture. Isaiah xliv:6-8; xlv:j^ 6y 7, 8^ 12^ 14^ 
18^ 22; xlvi:g; xlviii: 12, 13; also in Revelations. 

You may see states without walls, without laws, without coins, 
without writing; but a people without a God ,has no man seen. — 
Plutarch. 

I. Pectus est quod facit theologum. — Neander. 

As are the inclinations, so are the opinions. — Goethe. 

Our system of thought was often only the history of our 
heart. . . Truth is descended from conscience. . . Men do 
not will according to their reason, but reason according to their will. 
— Fichte. — Rioted iJt Farrar^s Witness of History to Christ. 



PROLEGOMENA. Vll 

to some extent paternal, — amply stated in the Hebrew 
Scriptures and fully revealed by the Christ. Though 
there have been "gods many," One only has been rec- 
ognized Supreme. The philosophic religionists, who 
built the altar that Paul encountered at Athens, wit- 
nessed God with personality involved, by the inscrip- 
tion thereon, though the specific qualities of His 
being were* to them "unknown." Modern agnostics 
recognize only a Grarid Etre^ from which conception, 
or name, they have labored to abstract personality — 
" deanthropomorphise " as they term it; in fact, to 
adopt the substituted compound of the Duke of Argyll, 
more definite and accurate, "deanthropopsychise" — 
viz: they have endeavored to abstract from their con- 
ception of the Deity every element of vitality, psych- 
ical and spiritual, homogeneous and analagous in 
man. The residuum, if there be any, is sublimation 
of matter. He becomes It — the Infinite and Eternal 
Energy, Power or Force. Alas for the infirmity or 
treachery of their thought and language ! since per- 
sonality is ever involved in them. 

Some good men, earnest contenders for the faith 
once delivered to the saints, have been much per- 
turbed lest those who do not do their own thinking 
may be tempted to step on this skeptical raft, thrust 
out for venture on the unknown sea, and be borne 
away to the "Everlasting No" of "All Nothingness."' 
Let none be alarmed. Consciousness cannot be over- 
borne. Convictions cannot be repressed. Intellect- 
ually, men are safe. Victory over question and doubt 

I. A sort of something about which nothing can be known. — 
Discuss, bet. Spencer and Harrison. 



yill PROLEGOMENA. 

will throne belief in the souL Truth has always thus 
first been tested, then espoused.* These illustrious 
philosophers, scientists, and thinkers, notwithstand- 
ing their hypotheses unverified and generalizations 
incomplete, some of which conHict with Scriptural 
statement, have done incalculable service in the re- 
moval of rubbish from intellectual progress; in the 
destruction of idols of culture or tradition; in the ex- 
posure of philosophical and theological shams; in the 
application of rigid analysis to discussion; in the 
elimination of truth from error; in the exaction of 
clear conception and of precision in statement. In 
due time, deflected thought from the rectilinear will 
be righted. "The pendulum, as it oscillates from 
end to end, ever passes over its center while it moves 
the hand of time." ^ No mind can resist the witness 
of its own consciousness. The Almighty in His 
spiritual creations, as in His material, cannot be de- 
throned. He is evidenced in the "Natura naturans, " 
as in the "Natura naturata" — in "nature producing,'"' 
as in "nature produced." ^ Whether bare intellect is 
predisposed to mathematical or abstracting processes, 
the soul = mind + heart -will not be satisfied for wor- 
ship with an a?" — symbol of the Unknowable raised to 
infinity, for a god or a fetish; or. if emotion sensuous 

1. In the original word (jxiizroiiai^ from which the English 
sheftic is derived, is involved look^ scrutiny^ thought^ question in 
which there is doubt. 

A history of doubters and free-thinkers is, in fact, the history of 
human enlightenment. Every advance in thought or knowledge, 
has owed its inception and impulse to inquiring doubt. — Evenmgs 
•with Skeptics. — John Oxven. 

2. Faith and Philosophy. — H. B. Smith. 3. Spinoza. 



PROLEGOMENA. IX 

and imagination earthy dominate, with a woman of 
the age of thirty haying her son in her arms — symbol 
of the God Incarnate in Humanity, spelt with a big 
H.^ As the priests of such religion are disappointed 
with the small progress it has made after the zeal of 
a century, they might profit by the suggestion which 
it is said Talleyrand made to one of their apostles — 
La Reveillere Lepeaux — "to try, at least, the experi- 
ment of being crucified, and of rising again on the 
third day." ' 

Let philosophy move on, circularly as it has, and 
Natural Science, linearly as it must, if it will be an 
honest reporter of facts in investigation; — truth never 
will be shaken, but be thereby reinforced. Every 
soul, if it will have measure of peace, rest, hope, 
must get on to the rock of this recognition of God in 
its own consciousness, — amply revealed through 
matter and spirit, the Deific Father. This realized, 
all other essential beliefs will succeed. Unacquired 
— to use the Socratic symbol — the soul will be driven 
over the ocean of being upon a raft, rudderless, and 
without compass or pole-star to guide it on its per- 
ilous way. "Once really adopt the conception of an 
ever present God, without whom not a sparrow falls 

1. Discuss, bet. Spencer and Harrison. 

God is not a mere anima tiztindi, nor the totality of the 
forces of the universe, nor an abstraction of the mind, like Hu- 
manity with a big H, but a Person in the most transcendent sense 
of the term, and as the Person who put personality into us. — W. 
S. Lilly . — Ancient and Modern Tlwuglit. 

The personality of God is the personality of man freed from all 
the conditions and limitations of Nature. — Feuerbach. 

2. W. S. Lilly. 



X PROLEGOMENA. 

to the ground; and it becomes self-evident, that the 
law of gravitation is but an expression of a particular 
mode of divine action. And what is thus true of one 
law is true of all laws." ^ 

As to the revelation of other truth within or with- 
out, specially prepared for the nutriment and invig- 
oration of the mind and heart, man's higher spiritual 
nature, and to refine him for the celestial life; it is 
unquestionable, that from his creation, there ever 
must have been sufficient for his enlightenment and 
welfare, according to necessities and capacities to re- 
ceive at different periods in his history, — even when, 
from the anthropoid ape by continuous evolution or 
by special leap, he stood forth 6 avdpwTroq — the erect 
and "the looker-up." ^ The earthly parent under- 
stands, that it is not wise or helping to communicate 
to the child, what he would reveal in advanced stages 
of his being. Jesus reserved from His confidences 
with His disciples, much that was weighty, on account 
of their inability, their unpreparedness to receive. 
It doubtless can be correctly averred, that no human 
being has lived in want of light upon his spiritual 
state and destiny, his relations to his Maker and his 
fellows, which, if improved, would have been ad- 
equate for his temporal and eternal welfare. It has 
been, not so much for want of light, that men have 
necessarily gone to ruin, as in their failure to im- 
prove what they had. The disastrous consequences 
of such neglect, inevitably falling upon them in due 
time, will be the " falling into the hands of the living 

1. Quoted by John Fiske. 

2. Greek etymologists derive the word from 6 aviu dOpaJv. 



PROLEGOMENA. XI 

God" — the statutory penalty, "a fearful thing." Few 
or many stripes will be their portion, according to 
their light and dereliction in improving it. 

In all the major or the minor religions of earth, as 
their items of belief have come specified to us, it is 
evident, that they comprise enough for the highest 
good of those who profess them, if assiduously put 
into practice. If carefully, honestly, conscientiously 
considered, it must be admitted that there is fully as 
much neglect generally to put into practice, seriaiim^ 
the various items of Christian belief by its adherents, 
as there is among the devotees of any of the present 
ethnic religions to embody theirs. It can be without 
disparagement of the surpassing tenets of Christian- 
ity affirmed, and it is with solemnity believed, that 
the prospects of ultimate safety, if not of positive 
peace, rest and enjoyment in the life beyond, are as 
hopeful to the average heathen as to the average citi- 
zen, if not the average church member in Christ- 
endom. Certainly all are in great peril, whether 
they have received little or much light; ultimate des- 
tiny will be determined by the improvement of that 
received; if they have been beneficiaries of "line 
upon line," "precept upon precept," during the de- 
cades of their history, yet still have resisted its testi- 
mony and their own convictions, "until there was no 
remedy," fearful will be their condemnation. 
"Europe," said Spencer or a Spencerian, "contains a 
hundred millions of pagans masquerading as Christ- 
ians." Of how many millions more in all Christendom 
this might be truthfully said! This is a solemn af- 
firmation, yet must needs be made, and not inconsid- 



XU PROLEGOMENA. 

erately, as must be evident to every vigilant, thought- 
ful observer, and as will be .hereafter in these pages 
attempted to be shown. 

Thus, then, it is evident, that truth enough and 
adequate for well-being has been already revealed. 
It has so cumulated, that the heavens of the sojourner 
blaze with it. He that runs in the hurry-scurry of 
life may read. True, light upon many profound 
mysteries is desirable. Sometime in the eternal ages 
it will come; not Now, not Here. Let us wait! 

Conduct, illustration, practice — acting, doing as its 
root-origin indicates — is what is needed and de- 
manded, being, as it should be, and as the English 
essayist has declared, three-fourths of life, without 
which abstract creed is but sounding brass or a clang- 
ing cymbal. If professing Christians would have 
power with God and men, with unbelievers whom 
they touch in life, with the heathen at home or 
abroad, they must gird themselves to the duty of 
cleansing their own hearts and lives — "awaking to 
righteousness and sinning not" — and of cleansing 
also the ecclesiastical bodies with which they affiliate, 
since they are the avowed lamp-stands or temples of 
light in enveloping darkness; — if therefore the light 
in them be darkness, what great darkness! Matth. 
vi:23; — or their assumption, of being "the salt of the 
earth" will become a stench to the nostrils of all 
right-minded and reasonable, and will be spewed 
upon by the dregs of humanity, as not only without 
conserving savor, but even offensive to them in their 
degradation. Such will, as it ought, be cast out and 
trodden under foot of men, Matth. v:13. Their 



PROLEGOMENA. Xlll 

avowed mission to evangelize others will otherwise, 
prove a failure; God will raise up others, perhaps 
among the hitherto idolatrous nations, by whom He 
will be honored, — His truth , through His glorious and 
glorified Son. be taken to the ends of the earth. As 
were not accepted Hebrew offering and sacrifice for 
"a broken spirit," so worship of a Christian creed, or 
Sabbath service in gorgeously constructed temples 
will not be received by God as substitutes for "a 
broken and contrite heart " — for pure and undefiled 
religion. Single-breasted black coats with superflu- 
ous buttons close to the throat; white chokers to the 
chin; clerical air and gait, with D. D. or Ph. D. ap- 
pended; bands or stoles, cassocks or surplices doffed 
or donned ; bows and genuflexions ; processions 
and recessions in or around a meeting house or a ca- 
thedral; intoned rituals and music; rhetorical mouth- 
ings of Scripture and hymns ; oratorical attitudes and 
saintly expression; — all such masquerade and milli- 
nery of service will not save or impress men of this un- 
toward generation. The socialistic Dragon shoots up 
its hydra head. Its communistic, anarchistic, nihil- 
istic brood thrust out their fiery tongues. The spir- 
itual John Baptist is everywhere in English or German 
speaking Christendom, a-crying : Away with your 
ecclesiastical, clerical, religious shams! Stop your 
masquerading! Get down ye Christian posture-mas- 
ters- to the bed-rock of reality! No longer proffer to 
the spiritually hungry the chaff of religious preten- 
sion! Asking bread from you, will you proffer stone? 
The flail is uplifted, and the ax laid at the foot of the 
tree. Pure religion and undefiled before our God 



XIV PEOLEGOMENA. 

and Father .is doing good — going about to do it — not 
an abstract creed and worship of it, but concrete em- 
bodiment in life of all that is good and wholesome 
in it. The trumpet-tongued voice from the Heavens 
to all is: 

Creature all grandeur, son of truth and light, 

Up from the dust! the last great day is bright; 

Bright on the Holj Mountain 'round the throne ; 

Bright where in borrowed light the far stars shone — 

Look down ! the Depths are bright! and hear their cry ; 

"Light! light!" Look up! 'tis rushing down from high! 

Regions on regions, far away they shine; 

'Tis light ineffable, 'tis light divine ! 

'' Immortal light and light forevermore." 

Off through the deeps is heard from shore to shore 

Of rolling worlds: Man! wake thee from the sod! 

Awake from death! awake, and live with God ! 

—R. H. Dana. 



THE CHRIST IN LIFE 



O Deus, ego amo Te ! 
Nee amo Te, ut salves me, 
Aut quia non amantes Te 
yEterno punis igne. 

Tu, Tu, my Jesu, totum me 
Amplexus es in cruce, 
Tulisti clavos, lanceam, 
Multamque ignominiam, 
Innumeros dolores, 
Sudores et angores, 
Ac mortem : et hsec propter me, 

Ac pro me peccatore. 

Cur igitur non amem Te, 
O Jesu amantissime? 
Non ut in coelo salves me, 
Aut ne seternum damnes me, 
Aut prsemii ullius spe: 
Sed, sicut Tu amasti me, 
Sic amo et amabo Te: 
Solum quia Rex meus es, 
Et solum quia Deus es. 

— Francis Xavier. 

6 kwpaxQJc, ^ Ep-k k(i)paxs zov Uaripa. — yo/m xiv:g. 
^Eyu) xat 6 Tlarrjp '^' E\^ ifffiev. — jfokn x:jo. 

Christ set up the human parent as the best representative of 
the Divine Father, and thereby elevated the parental spirit into 
an inter? dieter of divine things. — Bcce Deus. 



THE OHEIST IN LIFE. 



CHAPTEK L 



THE MINISTKY OF KECONCILIATION. 

I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all the 
people ; for there is born to you this day , in the City of David a 
Savior, Who is Christ the Lord. — Luke ii: jo-ii. 

God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. — // 
Cor. V : jg. 

For forty centuries through ante- and post-diluvian 
patriarchs and prophets, — light cumulating through 
personal experiences and observations of generations 
— as those centuries progressed, mankind had knowl- 
edge of God and recognized His personality; — appre- 
hension not complete, as in fact -it is not now, since 
the Finite cannot grasp the Infinite, but adequate 
doubtless, for those child and progressing ages of 
human development. One ray shot into the darkness 
will suffice for apprehension of the nature and qual- 
ities of light. 

There had been a multiplicity of previous manifes- 
tations of Him., out of the earth, and from the starry 
heavens; through His speech direct to men, and indi- 
rect — through those who, moved by the Holy Spirit, 
2 (17) 



18 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

spoke from Him. All these, even with the super- 
added ministries of priest, prophet and king — ritual 
and temple service failed to stem the human move- 
ment downward. Men rejected the Truth — messages 
from God through fallible lips. They clamored for 
a higher, positive, palpable manifestation of Him 
through an infallible Person, in human form, that 
they might speak to and be spoken to by Him ; that 
doubts accumulated upon prime beliefs might be re- 
moved, and that light suJB&cient upon the mysteries 
of life and the unsolved problems of the future, 
might be given. Humanity had been yearning for 
His advent. Heathen poets, as well as sacred min- 
strels, hailed the auspicious hour. The cry was then 
as now for His second appearing. 

Come ! for Creation groans, 

Impatient of Thy stay — 
Worn out with these long years of ill, 

These ages of delaj 

Come, and make all things new, 

Build up this ruined earth. 
Restore our faded paradise — 

Creation's second birth. 

Come, and begin Thj reign 

Of everlasting peace ; 
Come, and take the kingdom to Thjself, 

Great King of Righteousness. 

He came. But His Hebrew brethren would not 
recognize or tolerate His claim. By no means did 
they look for Him to be cradled in a manger, the son 
of a carpenter, and a Nazarene. In the synagogue 
of the place " where He had been brought up," He 



NEVER MAN SPAKE LIKE THIS MAN. 19 

read the declaration of the prophet, expecting that 
the reference and the application would be recog- 
nized. The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because 
He hath anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the 
poor; He hath sent Me to heal the broken in heart; 
to proclaim release to the captives, and restoration of 
sight to the blind; to send deliverance to the op- 
pressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. 
This day, said He, the Scripture has been fulfilled in 
your ears. Luke iv: 18-21. In vain, — though all 
wondered at the gracious words He spake. No proph- 
et is accepted by his neighbors. All the bigotry of 
the Jewish heart was fired. The Devil, it may be be- 
lieved, was present to fan it into flames. Is not this 
the carpenter, — the son of Mary, the brother of James, 
and Joseph, and Simon? and are not His sisters here 
with us? Matth. xiii : 55 ; Mark vi : 3. In their rage, 
they rose and drove Him from the town, and led Him 
to the brow of the hill whereon it was built, that they 
might hurl Him down headlong. Luke iv: 28-29. 
Amiable fellow citizens , indeed! "Waiting for the 
Hope of Israel! Thus men in all ages, aspiring os- 
tensibly for Truth-revealers, have made quick dis- 
posal of them when they came, and their children 
build and garnish their sepulchres. 

Eloquent men, brilliant teachers, there have been, 
very many, before and since His time — mighty proph- 
ets from Abraham to John; but never man spake 
like this Man. His declarations concerning the spirit- 
ual state of men, the conditions of salvation, — ^that 
weal or woe would ensue upon their acceptance or re- 
jection, were intelligent to alL Some statements, as 



20 THE CHBIST IN LIFE. 

designed, stirred to tlie deepest the prof oundest think- 
ers. They confounded the Pharisaic casuist, and the 
Sadducean caviler. They were stimulating to all 
Truth-seekers. They grappled with the subtlest in- 
quiries, and the profoundest problems in ethics, re- 
ligion and spiritual destiny. They responded to the 
universal yearning for more light. They confirmed 
the common hope and fear with respect to the Here- 
after. The common people heard Him gladly. Mark 
xii: 37. All hung upon Him listening. Luke xiv: 48. 
When listening they had heard, they marvelled, left 
Him and went their way. Matth. xxii : 22. Marvel- 
ling at His answer, were silent. Luke xx: 26. The 
Jews marvelled, saying how knoweth this Man let- 
ters, having never learned? John vii: 15. And they 
were astonished at His doctrine, for He taught them 
as One having authority, and not as the Scribes. 
Matth. vii: 29. 

He reaffirmed, supplemented, illustrated and en- 
forced, with such appositeness and cogency as no one,, 
before or since, had done, what had been enjoined in 
the Law and the Prophets. The Scribes and Phari- 
sees, as well as the common and illiterate Hebrews, 
knew that supreme love was due to the Being who 
made them ; their theoretic forms of belief and wor- 
ship expressed it — that they should love their neigh- 
bors as themselves, for their daily remonstrances 
against wrongs in society attested it. " Thou shalt love 
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all 
thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy 
strength; thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself;" 
intelligent Hebrews knew that they were, word for 



MESSIANIC PEOPHECY REALIZED. 21 

word, the repetition of what had been, from the in- 
fancy of their history through all their national devel- 
opment, enjoined.^ Obey! Believe! Repent! were 
as familiar before, as at His coming. His exposition 
of these commands, and His personal application of 
them, at first startling, finally commended themselves 
as just and true. He that harbors, cherishes the de- 
sire for another's wife is an adulterer. He that stead- 
ily, persistently hates is a murderer. Such ones want 
only opportunity and occasion. And one of the 
Scribes came, and having heard them questioning to- 
gether, and knowing that He had answered them well 
— tumid as it would seem with conceit — asked Him: 
Which is the first commandment of all ? To the Sav- 
ior's answer, the patronizer could not otherwise than 
respond: Well, Teacher! of truth Thou dost say that 
He is One, and there is none other than He. And, 
to love Him with all the heart, and with all the under- 
standing, and with all the soul, and with all the 
streng-th, and to love his neighbor as himself is more 
than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. Mark 
xii: 28-33. 

All the religious service of the Hebrews was typical 
and prophetic of His coming. His appearance in the 
flesh, His teachings, life were the realization of Mes- 

I. Confucius, five centuries before Jesus, enunciated substan- 
tially the same precept. 

In the " Laws " of Plato is the following aspiration : May I, being 
of sound mind, do to others as I would that they should do to me. 
— Book xiy giSt JovjeWs Version. 

Not to do what one's own sense of right tells him not to do, not 
to desire what it forbids him to desire, is the sum of right action. — 
Tohio. — 'Johnson. — Oriental Religions. 



22 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

sianic prophecy. The intelligent Jew, the representa- 
tive Scribe and Pharisee, must have known it if they 
had considered; but their anticipations were so unspir- 
itual; they had so degenerated in faith and practice; 
the Savior's presence, teaching and working; the evi- 
denced realization in Him of Prophecy were so re- 
bukeful of their lapsed condition; they would not 
allow themselves to listen for any considerable period, 
to reflect, to apx)ly. They spiritually, as they did lit- 
erally, put their fingers in their eara and closed the 
interview, by "Away with Him." 

He brought life and immortality to light through His 
Gospel; more literally threw light upon, or illustra- 
ted life and immortality through His Evangel. There 
had been frequent intimations of the soul's eternity 
throughout the Old Testament records. It seems to 
have been assumed throughout, though some have 
questioned its direct affirmation in those records. 
The Patriarchs had been stimulated and spiritually 
fortified by it, and frequently made allusions to it. 
The Psalms and Prophecies are full of references. 
Jesus saith unto her, thy brother shall rise again. 
Martha saith unto Him, I hnow — as if it was a truth 
of prior recognition, — I know that he shall rise again 
in the resurrection at the last day. John xi:24 
The Old Testament abounded in presuppositions of 
eternal existence. In the first chapter of Genesis it 
was said, God created man in His own image. In 
the image of God is implied eternal existence. In 
the trial of our first parents was involved something 
beyond mere physical life and death. The murder 
of the righteous Abel in the prime of being, while 



A- 

LIFE AND IMMORTALITY BROUGHT TO LIGHT. 23 

the life of fratricidal Cain was suffered to be pro- 
longed, could not be reconciled with the assumed 
justice of God, save upon the presumption that there 
would be ,hereafter a just recompense and a compen- 
sation for this atrocity, and this sudden curtailment 
of earthly being. The Apostle says, Abel having 
died, sUll speaks. The acts speak, says the skeptic. 
But if it is a fact, that the acts — the results of a man's 
thoughts .have survived six thousand years, is it cred- 
ible .that the mind itself, — the elaborator .under God 
of those thoughts, has not likewise survived? Enoch 
walked with God, and he was not; for God took him. 
Does any one believe, that this taking of Enoch by 
God was eternal extinction? The Apostle says, by 
faith Enoch was translated, etc., — ^transferred from 
earth to some other place; and where would God take 
him but to Himself — to His own holy place? Would 
He take him there to be annihilated? In regard to 
Abraham, the same Apostle says: He waited for the 
city — having foundations, whose architect and builder 
is God. Hebrews xi : 10. What else but the heavenly 
Jerusalem? His descendants in faith confessed that 
they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth, seek- 
ing after a country of their own — desiring a better, a 
Heavenly, prepared for them. What but the Heaven 
eternal? Heb. xi: 10-19. With respect to the at- 
tempted offering of Isaac by Abraham, the Apostle 
declares, that he did it, accounting that God was able 
to raise even from the dead. The language of God 
to Moses in the burning bush, I am the God of Abra- 
ham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the 
Savior interpreted, as teaching the resurrection from 



24 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

the dead, and the future life. The Apostle declares, 
that Moses, in his choosing rather to endure suffering 
with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures 
of sin for a season, etc., had respect unto the recom- 
pense of the reward. Heb. xi. Where, and to what, 
but the recompense of the just ? Balaam's prayer was : 
Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my 
last end be like his. Why, but for the ultimate, the 
resultant, and the eternal joy? Saul's desire to have 
Samuel summoned from the dead, is an indication of 
the popular belief in the continued existence of the 
soul after physical, psychical death. The repeated 
use of the language, " As Jehovah liveth, and as thy 
soul liveth," is thought to imply the eternity of the 
soul from its association with the Eternal Spirit. 
The Psalmist, in the 16th Psalm, declares: My flesh 
also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my 
soul in Hades, neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One 
to see corruption. ... At thy right hand are 
pleasures for evermore. Whether declarative of him- 
self, or of the Messiah, the passage teaches the eter- 
nal existence of the soul. In the 17th Psalm, 13-15, 
the wicked are spoken of as having their portion in 
this life. As for me I will behold Thy face in right- 
eousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake with 
Thy appearance. In the 49th Psalm, the wicked are 
said to be laid in the grave like sheep. But .the 
Psalmist says, the upright shall rule over them in the 
morning — of what,, but of the resurrection? God will 
redeem me from the hand of Sheol, for He will take 
me out of it. In the 73d Psalm, the royal writer 
could not be reconciled with the fact, that the wicked 



LIFE AND IMMORTALITY BROUGHT TO LIGHT. 25 

were prospered, until he saw their end in the light of 
God's law. But, says He, Thou shalt guide me with 
thy counsel, and afterward take me to glory. . . . 
My flesh and my heart faileth; but God is the rock 
of my heart, and my portion forever. In the Proverbs 
and Ecclesiastes, eternal life and eternal death are 
often referred to. For instance : " The wicked is driven 
away in his wickedness; but the righteous hath hope 
in his death. . . . God shall bring every work 
into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be 
good, or whether it be evil." What stronger proofs of 
the continued existence of the soul after its dissolu- 
tion from the body, than the restoration to life of the 
sons of the widow of Zarephath, and of the Shunamite 
woman, and the ascension of Elijah in the chariot of 
fire? The imagery of the descent of the King of 
Babylon into Sheol, — in the language of, " Thy dead 
shall live; my dead shall rise. Awake and sing, ye 
that dwell in dust; for thy dew is as the dew on herbs, 
and the earth shall cast out the dead. The righteous 
perish, and no man lays it to heart; and Godly men 
are taken away, none considering that the righteous 
are taken away from that which is eviL He shall 
enter peace ; they shall rest in their beds, each one 
walking in his uprightness" — imply that the doctrine 
of the resurrection — of existence beyond physical 
death, was understood by the Hebrews in the time 
of Isaiah. Is. 26 and 57. Daniel had a vision of 
the future judgment, when he saw the throne on 
which the Ancient of Days did sit. His garment was 
white as snow. His hair was like pure wool. His 
throne was like the fiery flame; His wheels as burn- 



26 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

ing fire. . . Many of them that sleep in the dust 
of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting 

LIFE, and some to SHAME AND EVERLASTING CONTEMPT. 

Dan. vii, xii. 

If the inquiry in I Cor. xv:35 should be raised, — 
how are the dead raised, and with what body do they 
come? — Paul's elaborate response must be studied, as 
the completest ever given. It is replete with satisfac- 
tion and triumph. The intimation of a recent Eng- 
lish writer, in this connection, deserves consid- 
eration. 

"We have good ground for oelieving in the exist- 
ence of a non-atomic enswathment of the soul, 
ethereal, intangible, invisible, which, at death de- 
parts with it from the muddy vesture of decay, and 
constitutes the resurrection body." ^ 

The Hebrew race were in Egypt over four hundred 
years. In their subjected condition, necessarily im- 
pressible, if they had not been previously indoctrin- 
ated in the prime elements of Natural religion — re- 
produced and emphasized in the special revelation 
their ancestry had received; they must have been edu- 
cated into beliefs held by Egyptians,. for thousands of 
years before their advent among them, viz : of One 
Supreme Being, of the eternity of the soul, and of its 
happiness or misery in the other life . according to its 
conduct in this. Can it be believed that the He- 
brews — God's select out of all other nations as the 
special recipients of His prescribed will, had been 
uninstructed before and after the Exodus, as to these 

I. W. S. Lilly. 



LIFE AND IMMORTALITY BROUGHT TO LIGHT. 27 

most important truths, as some modern theological 
speculatists intimate ? ^ 

It is not surprising, that, on those occasions when 

I. See citations in " Light of Life," pages 70-74. 

The farther back we go into the earhest years of Egyptian his- 
tory, the more apparent it becomes, that, originally, one God, all 
Supreme, was the object of universal faith. 

Diodorus Siculus says, the Egyptians call the dwellings of the 
living, lodgings, because they are only occupied for a short time; 
the tombs, on the contrary, they call " eternal houses," because 
their occupants never left them. 

Their belief in a future life, and in a resurrection of the body, 
was most singularly real ; hence arose the care of the bodies of the 
dead, and of their tombs. 

The national faith in the immortality of the soul, and the resur- 
rection of the body , originated the art of decorating the tombs and 
of preservation of the dead. 

The Egyptian of the earliest times had a strong and abiding 
conviction, that his fate, after death, would depend on his conduct 
during his life on earth, and especially on his observance of the 
moral law. — Eaxvlinson. — Quoted by Prof. H. S. Osborn, LL. D. 
Ancient Egypt. 

The religious faith of the Egyptians comprised two prominent 
articles of belief — one was the immortality of the soul, the other, 
the resurrection of the flesh. The soul or spirit is frequently de- 
lineated on the walls of the tombs as a hawk with human head, 
furnished with wings, by which it could hover around the mummy 
of the deceased and watch over its preservation. . . . Much 
of the religious thought of the Egyptian was devoted to the con- 
struction of his tomb, the dwelling of the future, — to which, after 
an indefinite period of penitence and probation, the spirit would 
return to infuse new life into the shrivelled corpse. The existing 
life was as nothing to him compared with the life to come, and its 
necessities of little concern : the sun-dried brick was a sufficient 
protection for the living man ; but the dwelling of the future 
called forth the highest ability of the architect, the mason, and 
the artist. — Egypt of the Past. — Erasimis Wilson^ F R. S 



28 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

Jesus discoursed upon these mysteries, and flooded 
them with light, that the masses, hungering and 
thirsting with generations before them, for an ampler, 
a clearer revelation, listened to Him with the keenest 
relish and the most exalted satisfaction. 

No forced exegesis, no labored misinterpretation, 
no perverted application can set aside the plain, ob- 
vious meaning of Isaiah xxxiii : 14. The response, 
given to the interrogation, in the succeeding verses 
settles it beyond dispute. The sinners in Zion are 
afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites; 
who among us shall, dwell with the devouring fire ? 
who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings ? 
— not material fire or burnings, of course, — the lan- 
guage is symbolic, but the spiritual sufferings, the 
spiritual punishment, consequential or legitimate, of 
which fire and burnings are the vividest, the most be- 
fitting symbols. 

Who is he that will not "dwell," etc. ? "He," says 
the prophet, "that walketh righteously and speaketh 
uprightly," etc' 

Jesus commenced His public ministry, by reiterat- 
ing the message of His forerunner — "Bepent! for the 
Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." This was "the 
baptism of repentance " for the dismission, "remis- 
sion," "forgiveness of sins" — "the gospel of the 
Kingdom of God," to which He summoned his hear- 

I . Will the unbeliever in punishment for unrepented sin, or he 
who is, disposed to cavil, and to be satisfied with the flimsy diver- 
sion and application of its obvious meaning bv optimistic eschatol- 
ogists — though he has read this passage many times — read it 
again with the fifteenth Psalm in this connection. 



REPENTANCE THE CONDITION OF FORGIVENESS. 29 

ers to give heed. It was the old cry from the Heavens, 
that had been thundering adown the ages from the 
earliest transgression, — the blast of the celestial 
trumpet precedent to every reformation, when men 
in forgetfulness of God and in derogation of His be- 
hests had become imbruted in crime, or sunk in 
spiritual apathy: Change! or Die! Die, nationally, 
individually! Die .temporally, spiritually ! The pre- 
scription and the prerequisite for averting the spirit- 
ual ruin of the individual, and for staying the anarchy 
to which the Jewish State had been often and long 
tending, was in accord with the presumption of natu- 
ral reason. Of course, the message was primarily to 
each and every individual. Through the Christian- 
ization of the individual, only could the evangelization 
of communities or nations be attained. 

Belief, then, in His Gospel — requiring repentance, 
which, if genuine, would be in realization of help- 
lessness, "the Godly sorrow which worketh repent- 
ance unto salvation," would be succeeded by regener- 
ation of soul, ti^ansformation of character through 
the Spirit, forgiveness by the Heavenly Father — 
endless joy the resultant. 

There is therefore no need of mystification as to 
these conditions of forgiveness, and of salvation; as 
to the relations of Jesus — God manifest to the sinner; 
as to the way, or by what means the salvation is 
wrought. His teachings on the subject were lucid 
and cogent. Multitudes of God-fearing and Christ- 
loving persons have been needlessly and cruelly dis- 
tressed by doubts of their personal safety, arising 
out of metaphysical subtleties engendered by theolog- 



30 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

ical school-men. and have been incapacitated thereby, 
for the practical duties of religion, and to labor en- 
couragingly for the eternal weal of others. It is not 
believed, that the Divine Father, in making provision 
for the reconciliation of His prodigal children to 
Himself, intended that the conditions should be so 
complex and so involved metaphysically or spiritually, 
that they could not be readily apprehended by the 
simplest, and would not immediately commend them- 
selves to every individual reason though feeble, as 
just and befitting,^ 

A gift or offering from the creature to the Creator, 
is ever a natural and appropriate token of recognition, 
of gratitude for being and preservation; — a sacrifice 
of anything regarded precious, especially grain or 
fruit, nutritious beasts and birds — staple means of 
subsistence — measure of value, and currency for ex- 
change and barter, suggests itself to a mind benighted, 
yet conscious of guilt, as most befitting to propitiate 
or to appease an offended but placable Deity. Cain 
and Abel, subsequently the illustrious progenitor of 
the Hebrew race, and Noah , from a deluged world , 
employed offering and sacrifice. Evidences of such 
practice are found in the history of all ancient peo- 
ples. "All religions, excepting Buddhism, had their 
priests and their sacrifices, propitiatory as well as 

I. The New Testament writers, as a primary condition of 
direct contact with truth, insist on moral, rather than intellectual 
qualifications. Every degree of mind above idiocy, they affirm, 
can be made to understand and enjoy something of the Holy 
Gospel and its certainties of truth and grace, if there be but an 
honest intention. — Ed. White. — Certainties in Religion. 



THE CEREMONIAL LAW — PEOVISIONAL MEANS. 31 

eucharistic." ^ The practice was common in Egypt, 
and the Hebrews took it with them on their Exodus. 
The Eitual purged, with special requirements pre- 
scribed or tolerated by Jehovah through Moses; was 
intended, doubtless, to be merely provisional means 
for the regimen of a semi or wholly barbarous horde 
— a temporary instrumentality to conduct the minds 
and hearts of a select but refractory people, to a 
purer service, and upwards to the worship of Jehovah, 
inclusive, of course, of the prophecy and forecast in- 
terwoven in the shadowy outline — not the perfected 
image of the good things to come through the Mes- 
siah. Heb. vii-xi. 

Gentiles, in being apprised of the mission of Jesus, 
can come directly to Him. They need not the tram- 
mel, the burden, the discipline, the repression of an 
obsolete Ritual, elaborated, reticulated, thousands of 
years before the advent of the Messiah, though they 
may be instructed by it, and fortified in their Chris- 
tian trust. Antitypes now realized, predictions now 
fulfilled can be found inwrought in that Eitual; but 
it is not necessary that its details, or even its special- 
ties with their phraseologies should be strained or 
magnified for the advocacy or the defense of Chris- 
tianity. It must stand or fall on the evidenced Deity 
of its Founder — through His Deific works and words. 
The eternal and the universal principles of morality 
— discriminating between right and wrong, justice 
and injustice; obligation to reverence, if not to love 
the Creator; regard for one's neighbor as for one's self 
— embodied in the Moral Law, distinctive and inter- 

I, Mosaic Pispensation —Litton — jPampton Lectures. 



32 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

woven by Moses in his legislation, are found in the 
credenda of all peoples. Of course, the realized 
failure of attempted obedience prepares idolatrous 
but conscientious heathen, as in fact all men, to ap- 
preciate and to hail the mission of the manifested 
God in the Christ — the perfect Man, Who is the 
Way, the Truth and the Life. 

But the Hebrews do not appear to have paid much 
attention to the Levitical ceremonials during their 
National history, save in the spasmodic efforts of 
Hezekiah and Josiah for their revival, until their re> 
turn from the Babylonian captivity — close to ten cen- 
turies after their alleged institution by Moses. The 
prophets, God's spokesmen, referred to them con- 
temptuously, when proffered as substitutes for the 
obedience and service of the heart; though after the 
return from the Exile to the destruction of Jerusalem, 
the Jews were very zealous in their observance; they 
did not advance spiritually upwards and towards their 
Jahveh, but gravitated downwards and away from 
Him. The parents of Jesus seem to have been punc- 
tilious in bringing prescribed offerings, but Jesus 
Himself did not, apparently, pay attention to them, 
save on His public introduction to His ministry, 
through Baptism, and in the celebration of the Pass- 
over — on the eve of His tragical end, and that for the 
higher purpose of the institution of the Lord's Sup- 
per, When he went to the Temple, it was simply to 
improve the opportunity of teaching the multitudes 
who had gathered in or about it. One of the avowed 
purposes of His mission was to relieve His country- 



FORGIVENESS CONDITIONED UPON REPENTANCE. 33 

men from bondage to them. He nailed them to His 
cross. Coloss. ii:14. 

The declaration of God through Jeremiah vii : 21-24, 
is memorable, and should not fail to be noted in this 
connection: Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, the God 
of Israel. .... For I spake not unto your 
Fathers, nor commanded them in the day that 
I brought them out of the land of Egypt, con- 
cerning sacrifices. But this thing I commanded 
them, saying: Obey My voice, and I will be your 
God, and ye shall be My people; and walk ye in 
all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may 
be well with you, etc., etc. Positive declarations are 
interspersed through the Prophecies, that the blood 
of bulls and goats could not wash away sins — as 
caveats to devotees at the sacrificial altar, not to base 
their hopes of deliverance from the consequences of 
sins real, of appeasing their God — "angry," anthro- 
popathically^ for human apprehension, "with the 
wicked every day," — of forgiveness by Him, and 
final salvation, through such material devote- 
ment; — that the sacrifice for such ends, acceptable 
and pleas *ng to God, was " a broken spirit, a broken 
and contrite heart," ever and always succeeded by the 

I. If God was to be described as a Person, and not a mere in- 
fluence, how could the conception be conveyed, save but bj 
ascribing to Him attributes associated in our mind with person- 
ality? . . . Never forget, that man was created in the image 
of God; . . . therefore, there is, and must be, a real conform- 
ity of our moral ideas to the infinitely higher, but in some sense, 
corresponding attributes of the Most High. — Mosaic Dispensation, 
Litton. — Bamfton Lecttires, 
3 



34 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

fruit of conduct meet for repentance. Hence also 
the specific and formal re-announcement of the con- 
dition of forgiveness by John Baptist, and its reitera- 
tion with the weightiest emphasis, by God in Christ 
Himself — that the requirement was, as it had ever 
been, "Kepent!" Hence also the illustrative teach- 
ing of the Prodigal Son — the most cogent and effect- 
ive appeal to the* parental heart, that the Divine 
Father's dealings with His prodigal ones were unmis- 
tak "«ably loving, patient and forbearing; that His 
tenderness was exquisite. His love incompassable, 
His forgiveness illimitable. Thus He appealed, and 
closed forever the mouth of gainsayers : If ye being 
evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, 
hoiu much more shall your Heavenly Father give the 
Holy Spirit to them that ask Him! Luke xi:13; 
Matth. vii:ll.; — since, the gift of the Holy Spirit is 
inclusive of all possible spiritual blessings, for the 
regeneration, the renovation, the purification, the 
ever-progressing edification of a soul towards the 
angels — indeed, towards God Himself in His perfec- 
tion, — for the injunction from the Deific Man Him- 
self: Be ye. therefore perfect, as your Heavenly 
Father is perfect, — looks to it. 

And Jesus Himself declared His mission to the 
Gentiles likewise as to "His people," in His commis- 
sion of Paul: Gentiles unto whom I send thee, to 
open their eyes that they may turn from darkness to 
light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that 
they may receive remission of sins, and an inheritance 
among them that are sanctified by faith in Me. Acts 
xxvi: 17-18. It is the burden and the specific teach- 



THE MISSION OF THE SON OF GOD. 35 

ing of all His parables o£ Grace. The Sermon on tlie 
Mount is an exposition of what He came to do. He 
declared in John XYiii: 37: To this end have I been 
born; and to this end have I come into the world, 
that I might testify to the Truth. John Baptist 
f orestated, Matth. iii : 10-12, — it was to lay the ax of 
extermination at the root of all wrong, and to sweep 
away all chaff of profession without possession by 
the Fan of righteousness in His hand. He learned 
obedience by the things which He suffered; and hav- 
ing been perfected. He became unto all them tvlio 
obey Him the Causer of eternal salvation. Heb. v: 
8-9. Because Christ also suffered for you, leaving 
you an example, thai ye should folloio His steps. I 
Peter ii : 21. 

He came , then , the manifestation of God in the 
flesh, a revelation of His divine personality, of all the 
divinest characteristics and qualities conceptible by 
men, as necessarily existent in the Creator, Su- 
preme God, and Divine Father, — Holiness, Jus- 
tice, Love, with all the attendant attributes and 
graces, in antagonism to sin; in inflexibility and un- 
changeableness of non-interference with any of its 
natural, its penal consequences, save on the condition 
of repentance; in pity, mercy, tenderness, patience, 
forbearance with the sinner to the last. God intended 
that all these qualities of His nature, human as well 
as divine, should be manifested through this theoph- 
any. God was ^ therefore . in Christ, reconciling the 
world unto Himself. What Jesus did or said, God 
did and said unto men. This is avowed; and if the 



36 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

Bible is to determine theological belief, then to its 
testimony men must adhere. 

Did Jesus not intend, that the Parable of the Prod- 
igal Son should specifically reveal the Fatherhood of 
God in relation to His prodigal children? and that 
the sole, simple condition of their forgiveness by Him 
was "the godly sorrow which worketh repentance 
unto salvation — repentance unregretted?" II Cor. vii: 
10. At what point in that story, does any theory of a 
so-termed atonement and requisite come in, unless it 
is interwoven in the warp and woof of the narrative 
itself — illustrative of the infinite patience, long-suffer- 
ing, forbearance and sacrificial love of the Father 
towards the sinning child — representative of His con- 
duct to every returning prodigal?^ Atonement is a 

I. Atonement — reconciliation, is a change wrought in us, a 
change by which we are reconciled to God. — Dr. Bushnell. 

Dr. Bushnell, in his discourse before the Divinity School at 
Cambridge, Mass., on the Atonement, rejecting the substitutional, 
expiatory, ransom, governmental, expression theories, declares .that 
the Scriptures advance two distinct vicM^s of Christ and His work, 
— "double, subjective objective" — which are radically one and the 
same. 

(i) A subjective, speculative, — one that contemplates the work 
of Christ in its ends, and views it as a power related to its ends. 

This he bases on his text, I John 1 : 2, and such passages as John 
xviii : 37 ; xiv : 6 ; Acts iii : 20-26 ; Titus ii : 14 ; II Cor. v : 19. 

(2) An objective, ritualistic, — one that sets Him forth to faith 
instead of philosophy, and one without which, as an Altar Form 
for the soul, He would not be the power intended, or work the 
ends appointed. 

In the Epistles to the Romans, the Galatians, the Hebrews, 
those of Peter and John, this altar view or form of Christ, appears 
— even as the eminent or supereminent truth of the Gospel. 



THE ATONEMENT IS RECONCILIATION. S7 

term found only once (Eom. v: 11) in the old English 
version of the New Testament, and the original term, 
T7]v xaraXXayijv, is more correctly translated, the recon- 
ciliation, in the New, as is the verbal form of it in 
the previous tenth verse of both the Old and New 
Versions. It is thus rendered in its nominal and ver- 
bal forms, II Cor. v: 18-19. And, were the various 
atonements (coverings of sin) so often specified in 
the Levitical ordinances, intended to be more than 
expiations for transgressions, ceremonial and ritual ? 

"It is of little purpose," declares the Bampton 
lecturer for 1832, " to urge the natural placability of 
the Divine Being, His mercy. His willingness to re- 
ceive the penitent. God, no doubt, is abundantly 
placable, merciful and forgiving. Still, the fact re- 
mains. The offender is guilty: his crime may be for- 
given, but his criminality is upon him. . . . We 
cannot be at peace without some consciousness of 
atonement made. . . . The human heart is inex- 
orable against itself. . . . God may forgive it, 
but it cannot forgive itself." 

The original word,^ rendered atonement in the 

I. The Hebrew verb caphar means literally " to cover over " 
sin. It is never used of the expiation or blood-shedding considered 
objectively, but of the results accruing from it to the sinner. . . 
The sacrifice was not the atonement, but the means by which 
atonement was made. Therefore, *' the preposition which marks 
substitution is never used in connection with the word capharP 
(Girdlestone's Synonyms.) . . . Making reconciliation, or 
atonement, therefore, according to the Scriptural use of the word, 
implies the removal of the practical estrangement between the 
sinner and God — the obtaining forgiveness for the sin. — The 
Coming Prince. — Robert Anderson^ LL, D. 



38 THE CHEIST IN LIFE. 

Old Testament, means the covering of sin, which 
certain theorists of the Christian era, in order to 
make the analogy, between the Law of Moses and the 
Gospel of Jesus , the Christ, as means for the rectifi- 
cation of men, and their final salvation . complete ; 
and. to balance or offset the inevitable, legitimate 
penalty of sin through the sufferings and death of 
Jesus, — ^have enlarged, with the addition of compen- 
sation, satisfaction, substitution, equivalence. The 
English word, as has been stated, appears once only 
in the Old Version of the New Testament, and its 
original Greek, rrjv xaTaXXayr^v^ simply means reconcili- 
ation, as it is rendered in the New Version. By the 
expression, " the fact remains, his criminality is upon 
him," it is supposed,, the writer intends simply to 
affirm, that though the sinner is forgiven by God 
upon the manifestation of his Godly contrition, the 
guilt , with its consequences, — one of which, besides 
its befitting legal penalty, is its eternal remembrance 
by the sinner, — still remains ineradicable, unstayed, 
unbalanced, uncancelled, irremediable; and that it 
will continue thus, and the evil therefrom never be 
eliminated, save through the atonement, so-expressed, 
of the Lord Jesus — the Christ. But surely the 
Bampton lecturer will not deny, that that portion of 
them involving the specific penalty upon the sinner 
for his guilt has been removed by the forgiveness of 
the Divine Father, upon Godly contrition? He cer- 
tainly cannot contend, that the remembrance of guilt 
can be eradicated from the sinner's mind by the 
atonement, so conceived and expressed, of the Lord 
— the Christ? His forgiven, saved ones .in Heaven, 



SIN CAN BE FORGIVEN, BUT NOT FORGOTTEN. 39 

are represented in the Revelations as being unceas- 
ingly jubilant in the remembrance of the forgiveness 
of their sins, and for their realized salvation. Gen- 
eral consequences of sin upon others, — upon the 
Universe at large, remain unstayed. True, the re- 
pentant, saved sinner will not be the stalwart saint in 
the Heavenly life, that he might be, had he not 
sinned. His soul will take with it the scars of the 
ravages of its sins. It will be crippled to that extent 
in spiritual advance; but it will not be dismissed into 
the "outer darkness" of the incorrigible. As the 
saved one can not, does not, forget his deliverance 
from the specific penalty of his guilt, — the conditions 
upon which he was enabled to obtain it from the 
good and the merciful God; so. he can not forget 
that guilt. 

If it be a portion of the mission of the Lord Jesus 
to this earth, — by His life, suffering and death, be- 
sides the manifestation of God, — of His love; of His 
patience; of His forbearance; of His tenderness; of 
His readiness to forgive every sinner upon the exhi- 
bition of the Godly contrition required; — if it be, to 
eliminate from the Universe the evils pure and inter- 
mingled with those general consequences; — it would 
seem to be, if it were not presumptions thought in a 
finite, an object befitting for the consummation of 
that glorious mission. There are some Scriptural 
intimations to that effect, — that evil, finally, will dis- 
appear, and good be triumphant. If good is upon 
the gain against evil , the ratio of advance being as- 
certained, if digits enough in succession could be 
arrayed, and were computable by the human mind. 



40 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

the period of that consummation might be indicated. 
The progressing sanctification of an individual is a 
prophecy of the good time coming. But logic jhuman 
and inexorable might affirm, that general conse- 
quences of events and actions in matter or mind, — 
though the specifically penal ones may be, in the way 
indicated, cannot r— save always with the reserve of 
Almighty interposition, — be stayed or eliminated 
out of the course of things. 

Remembrances of guilt are not, can not . be annihi- 
lated or stifled upon its forgiveness; nor could they 
be, upon the presumption of the indestructibility of 
the memory, upon such alleged atonement. Would 
it be necessary, or even desirable? The sinner's 
heart would be just as "inexorable against itself," 
after such atonement through the "sacrificial," "com- 
pensatory," "satisfactory," "equivalent," "substi- 
tuted " sufferings and death of the Christ, as it would 
be, after the forgiveness of God in Him, upon his 
Godly contrition. The "criminality •' as a fact "re- 
mains " — rests upon the sinner, though he has re- 
pented and been forgiven by his God. It is covered, 
by a figure, though, from official notice, and is con- 
doned upon Godly contrition; the man is made new, 
receives a new name, but the abstract fact of crimin- 
ality "remains." If the criminality "remains" a 
charge against the penitent, as well as against the 
impenitent — unatoned for, unbalanced, uncancelled, 
what advantage hath the contrite over the obdurate ? 

Will the knowledge and the reflection, that an inno- 
cent sufferer, human or Deific, paid the penalty of 
one's crime, serve to diminish his heart's inexorable- 



FORGIVENESS, — NO EXPIATION. 41 

ness against itself, and bring peace to his troubled 
soul? TVould they not rather serve to intensify that 
inexorableness, and put far off that peace ? In pro- 
portion as the repentant, the regenerate and the 
sanctified — saved soul comes to the full realization of 
the awful price alleged to be paid (commercially) for 
its redemption, so much more exquisite must be its 
regret, if not remorse ; so much more will " the heart 
be inexorable against itself.'* 

It is feared, that the advocates of such theory of 
salvation, though God-fearing and Christ-loving, have 
not yet discarded that anthropopathic conception of 
God, indicated in Ps. 1:21, regarding Him as an in- 
finite, still, imperfect Man. What doth He affirm of 
Himself? I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy 
transgressions ;for Mine own sake, and will not re- 
member (to charge against thee) thy sins. Put Me 
in remembrance; let us plead together; declare thou, 
that thou may est be justified. Isaiah xlii: 25-26. The 
Lord is long suffering and of great mercy, forgiving 
iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing 
the guilty, — visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon 
the children ,. unto the third and fourth generation. 
Numbers xiv:18; Ex. xxxiv:7. Wonderful conde- 
scension, love, compassion and tenderness! Justice, 
indefectible, unimpeachable ! 

"There is nothing in repentance," declares the 
Bampton lecturer for 1842, "which can be certainly 
retrospective or truly expiatory." 'Tis very true. 
But is an expiation of sin possible through the suf- 
fering of its penalty by another, even if it can be 
commensurate with the violation of the moral law; 



42 THE CHEIST IN LIFE. 

and even if it be by an innocent One, and He Deinc? 
Expiation of sin is not possible, unless expiation be 
through, or the result of forgiveness upon Godly 
contrition. It can't be atoned for really or commer- 
cially. It can only be forgiven, — and its conse- 
quences, save with the remission of the specific pen- 
alty upon the individual transgressor, must travel on, 
until the Almighty chooses to eliminate their evil 
pure and commingled from His Universe. Deeds — 
in thought, word, act, are irrevocable. The Bampton 
lecturer's "fact" of "criminality" "remains," — as he 
avers. 

If sacrificial offerings in sporadic cases, under the 
Mosaic dispensation, were presented as truthful indic- 
atives of inward penitential sorrow for real sin, in 
moral act, or involved in any ritual transgression; 
God doubtless accepted them, — to the extent that 
they were a portion of the fruits of sorrow required 
and meet, — worthless in themselves aside from such 
association; to be regarded as merely tokens of the 
inward emotion prescribed and experienced. He ever 
looks beyond into the innermost recesses of the soul, 
for the reliable indicatives of Godly contrition for 
sin. 

It is not recorded, that Moses offered material sac- 
rifices — as proffered expiations or atonements for the 
worship of the molten calf. He denounced it and 
confessed it, — interceding for the transgressors with 
God. God ruevertheless .destroyed three thousand rep- 
resentatives of them. In the prayer of Solomon at 
the dedication of the Temple, no specification is made 
of the requirement of the shedding of blood or of 



SACRIFICES OF GOD ARE BROKEN HEARTS. 43 

burnt-offerings, as atonement or expiation for sins 
that might be committed by worshippers, but only of 
sincere repentance, genuine contrition. David, on 
on coming unto a realization of his guilt, did not at- 
tempt to go to the altar with the shedding of blood, or 
with a burnt-offering as a sacrificial expiation for his 
crimes; but cried out of the depths of remorse and 
Godly contrition: Have mercy upon me, O God, ac- 
cording to Thy loving kindness. . . . Blot out 
my transgression. Wash me thoroughly from mine 
iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I ac- 
knowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever 
before me. . . . Deliver me from blood guilti- 
ness, O God. . , . For Thou desirest not sacrifice, 
else would I give it. The sacrifices of God are a 
broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, 
Thou wilt not despise. Ps. li. So runs through the 
penitential Psalms the trust of forgiveness upon 
simple Godly sorrow unto repentance. To obey is 
better than sacrifice, said Samuel to Saul, and to 
hearken than the fat of rams. I Sam. xv:22. I hate, 
I despise your feast days, and I will not dwell in your 
solemn assemblies; though ye offer Me burnt-offerings 
and your meat-offerings, I will not accept them; 
neither will I regard the peace-offerings of your fat 
beasts. Amos v: 21-22. To what purpose cometh 
there to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane 
from a far country? Tour burnt-offerings are not 
acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet unto me. Jer. 
vi: 20. For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the 
knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings. Hosea 
vi:6. Shall I come before Him with burnt-offerings. 



44 THE CHKIST IN LIFE. 

witli calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased 
with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of 
rivers of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my 
transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my 
soul ? What doth the Lord require of thee, but to 
do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly 
with thy God? Micahvi:6-8. To what purpose is 
the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me? saith the 
Lord: I am full (to loathing) of the burnt-offerings 
of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not 
in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. 
, . . Bring no more vain oblations : incense is an 
abomination unto Me : the new moons and Sabbaths, 
the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is 
iniquity^ even the solemn meeting. Wash ye, make 
you clean; put away the evil from before Mine eyes; 
cease to do evil; learn to do well, etc. Isaiah i. The 
simple condition for forgiveness of sins real, internal 
or external, from Genesis to Malachi, is truly repre- 
sented by the following declaration : 

Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous 
man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, 
and He will have mercy upon him : and to our God, 
for He will abundantly pardon. Isaiah Iv: 7; Ezekiel 
xviii:31; xxxiii:10-lL 

After the Ascension, it is true, that the Apostles, in 
their preaching and teaching; — the tragic scenes in 
Gethsemane, in the Judgment Hall, and on Calvary, 
— above all other remembrances, being always most 
prominent and vivid in memory; and having become 
fully persuaded that their Master was God in the 
Christ Who thus suffered and gave Himself for the 



"BLOOD,"^THE KEPRESENTATIVE OF LIFE. 45 

life of the world (John vi:51), very often associated, 
in the familiar phraseology of the Hebrew Ritual, 
the forgiveness of sin and the salvation of the sinner 
with the shed blood of the Christ, — evidently deriving 
the peculiar phraseology and its association from His 
impressive and memorable declarations in John vi: 
50-56, and in the institution of the Eucharist. Matth. 
xxvi:28, Markxiv:24, Luke xxii:20, John vi: 50-56, 
Acts xx:28, Eom. iii:25, v:9, 10, 12, I Cor. x:16, xi: 
25-27, IlCor. v:21, Eph. i : 7, ii : 13, Gal. iii:13, Col. 
i:20, Heb. i:3, ix:12, 14, 15, 26, 28, x:19, xii:24, xiii; 
12, 20, I Pet. i : 2, 19, ii : 24, iii : 18, iv : 1, I John i : 7, ii : 2, 
Rev. i:5, xii:ll. It cannot be believed however* that 
either He or they intended to teach, that the salvation 
of His disciples, or of sinning men in general was 
conditioned, and that exclusively, upon His literally 
shed blood, save as one of the memorable incidents, — 
the inevitable and final event in the details of His 
mission. For vivid and compressed expression, by 
way of metonymy or synecdoche, — an effect for a 
cause, or a part for the whole; it is believed, that the 
words "blood" and "shed" were used, — "blood" for 
the physical, psychical life ^ — the life of the flesh is in 
the blood, Lev. xvii:ll; — the body entire, or inclusive 
of the entire human personality of Jesus, — His hu- 
man body, soul and spirit, — God in Christ; and 

I. Blood is the fountain of life, the first to live and the last to 
die, and the primary seat of the animal soul. ... It lives and 
is nourished of itself, and by no other part of the body. — Harvey. 

It is the seat of life, because all the parts of the frame are formed 
and nourished from it. — John Hunter. — Rioted by TJiompson in 
Bam^ton Lectures on The Atonement. 



46 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

"shed," for the culminating act in the Tragedy. It is 
believed , also ,, that the thought and its expression 
were designed to specially impress the Hebrews, who , 
in their ritual services had been educated to associate 
forgiveness of sins ceremonial, and by p^erversion, of 
sins real, with the literally shed blood of certain 
beasts and birds. 

For such expression of individual or national suf- 
fering and death, the word blood has abounded in 
ancient and modern literature — history, oratory, 
poetry. How often has it been thus employed, in 
reference to American soldiers slain in the first and 
second contests with England, and in the recent Civil 
War! Besides its sacrificial association in the Scrip- 
tures — between one and two hundred times; it, or its 
cognates, from its first use by God, — exclamatory to 
Cain, are thus employed in the Bible. It is not be- 
lieved that Jesus or His disciples used it, or intended 
it should be interpreted otherwise than as God first 
used it, or as have ordinary speakers and writers in 
all ages. The blood of Jesus of course was superla- 
tively precious, — material and of like composition 
with that which courses through the veins of all men, 
since it was that of the body in which God had incar- 
nated Himself, and since it was the life, — physical, 
perhaps inclusive of the psychical, of the perfect 
Man, — God in the Christ. Perhaps, Jesus, it may be 
some of the Apostles, used it with double reference 
to the soul and spirit, and as the correlate of that 
eternal life, — so often discoursed about and empha- 
sized by Him. God gave unto us eternal life, and 
this life is in His Son. He having the Son, hath 



SALVATION, THROUGH GRACE, UPON REPENTANCE. 47 

the life; lie having not the Son, hath not the life. 
IJohnv.lO, 11. 

Until the declarations in John vi: 50-56, so impres- 
sively reaffirmed at the institution of the Supper, — 
not difficult to be apprehended, when interpreted, as 
designed, symbolically, — the recorded conditions of 
salvation, as previously enunciated by Jesus and re- 
iterated by His Apostles after the Ascension, were 
simply .belief in Him as the Messiah — God in Christ, 
and in His mission; Luke iv:18, 19; Godly contrition 
for sin, in confession .with the fruits thereof meet, — 
such as possible restitution of what had been un- 
righteously taken, possible undoing of any wrong; the 
cherishing of a spirit of forgiveness; and the bestow- 
ment of loving words and deeds upon those in bodily 
or spiritual want. Luke has thus felicitously and 
succinctly grouped the specialties of His mission: 
To give knowledge of salvation unto His people in 
the remission of their sins, through the merciful 
Heart of our God; whereby the Day-Spring from on 
high shall visit us to shine upon them that sit in dark- 
ness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet 
into the way of peace. Luke i: 77-79.^ 

I. It is sufficient to refer, in addition, to Matth. iii:2, 8, ir riy, vi:i4, 
ix:i3, xi:28, xii:5o, xvi:24, xviii:3, 32, 35, xix:2i, 29, xxi:32, 
xxv:io, 21, 23, 40; Mark i:4, 15, ii:5, 17, vi:i2, ix:24, 37, x:29, 
30, xvi:i6; Luke v 120,32, vi:35, 37, 47, 48, vii.47, 50, vii:i5, ix: 
23, x:27, 28, xii:3i, xiii:3, 5, xiv:i7, xv: 7, 11-32, xvi: 30,(1) xviii: 
13, 22, 29, 30, xxiii:42, 43, xxiv:47; John i: 12, 13, iii:5, 15-18, vi: 
29> 3S> 4O1 47-58> x:28, xi 125-27, xiv:2i, xvii:3, xviii ; 37, xx: 23; 
Acts ii: 38, iii:i9, v:3i, x:43, xi: 18, xiii:24, 38, 39, xvi:3i, xvii: 
30, xix:4, xx:2i, xxvi:i7, 18, 20; Rom. x 19, 10; II Cor. viirio; 
Heb. v:9; I John v:i, 2; II Pet. iii:9; also Revelations. Citations 
in "Light of Life,'' pp. 211 -21 2 

(i) This Parable, apparently, doth negative any hope of post 



48 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

Even in the Epistle to the Hebrews — the grand 
arsenal for the weaponry of those, who condition the 
forgiveness and the salvation of the sinner .on the 
literally shed blood of Jesus; or .who are constantly 
reiterating the phraseology in their homilies : " Sal- 

mortem probation. It is evident, that the heart of Dives in Hades 
was in a corrigible state ; it was at least softened by his expe- 
riences there ; his solicitude was intense, that his five brethren on 
earth should be prevented, bj the mission and testimony of Laza- 
rus, from coming to that place of anguish. It was thus indicated, 
that his case was suitable for the extension of Divine forgiveness, 
and consequent salvation, — if he was still in probation, and his 
condition not utterly hopeless, remediless. But, the reply of 
Abraham is fearfully significant: "Between us and you," not 
only that " there is a great chasm," but that it is " fixed " — impass- 
able, immovable, — so that it was impossible for inmate of one to 
pass to inmate of the other ; and in his summary, decisive closing 
of the interlocution : " They have Moses and the Prophets ; let 
them hear them." But "if one from the dead should go unto 
them, they will repent," responded Dives. Then came the final, 
utterly hopeless declaration : " If they hear not Moses and the 
Prophets, neither will they be persuaded, should one rise from the 
dead." 

Jesus would not have given this partial disclosure of the spiritual 
state, had it not been a truthful representation, whether there was 
such colloquy between such persons, or whether it was conceived 
and thus concisely expressed, for effective impression. There can 
be no doubt that in the other life such reflections are experienced, 
and that such cries are inwardly or outwardly expressed. 

Can there be any other inference, than that there is no ^ost 
mortetri probation } Even this side of the nether world, it some- 
times, if not often has occurred that probationers have lost for- 
ever priceless blessings, in exchange for transient pleasure of the 
body, or of the unsanctified soul, and "found no place for repent- 
ance, though they sought most earnestly for it," and "with tears,'' 
Heb. xii: i6, 17. 



"salvation through blood." 49 

vation by the blood!" "No salvation save by 
blood!" — in isolation from other specified conditions, 
and other tragic incidents in His life, death, resurrec- 
tion and ascension — illustrating and enforcing the 
stress placed by the types and analogies under the 
Levitical law, — quoting from Heb. ix:22, which spe- 
cifically declares, addressing Hebrew believers, that 
according to said law, apart from shedding of blood, 
there is no remission; in this same JEpistle, the posi- 
tive declaration is made : For it is impossible, that 
the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins ; 
. . . and every priest standeth daily officiating, 
and offering frequently the same sacrifices, ivhich 
can never take away sms. Heb. x:4, 11. 

The logic, the conclusion and the appeal of the 
Apostle in these ninth and tenth chapters, as in f act^ 
other portions, are specifically to the Hebrews — in 
question, whether Jesus was in fact the anticipated 
Messiah; and whether the Christian Dispensation 
was to take the place of the abrogated Levitical, — as 
the Apostle had argued, and they are simply a fortiori, 
"For if the blood of bulls and goats," etc. — "How 
much more shall the blood of Christ," etc. If you 
thought there could be efficacy for the forgiveness of 
sins ceremonial, or even real, in the shed blood of 
bulls and goats, how much more, etc., in the shed 
blood of Jesus — your expected, predicted, realized 
Messiah? He has become your High Priest forever 
after the order of Melchisedec. But then, he adds, 
the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sins. 
The inferential teaching is : material blood — brute or 



50 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

human, even that of Jesus, for it likewise was material 
and human, cannot take away sins. The shedding of 
His blood was the culmination of the tragedy of His 
bodily mission. He died for, — His blood was shed 
by moral consequence . for, on account of your sins, 
and the sins of the entire world. The figures are 
material, and the language is symbolic. Had men 
not sinned, there would have been no necessity for 
the shedding of His blood, — that the Deific One in 
the fleshly manifestation , should die. But, that 
sacrifice, self-denial, suffering, from the Manger 
to the Cross .having been designed in the last 
resort (Matth. xxi:37, Mark xii:6, Luke xx:13) as 
means to impress sinners, that God was thus in this 
Christ, endeavoring to reconcile them to Himself, — 
the most vivid and impressive illustration of His un- 
conditioned love that could be given, as is conceived, 
— ocular proof and palpable demonstration; and 
these means proving to be the direct or indirect in- 
strumentality, through which, and the Spirit's appli- 
cation and enforcement, we have been made to realize 
our sinful and helpless condition, to cry for help and 
deliverance, and to receive it; — truly and fittingly it 
can be said, our repentance, forgiveness and salva- 
tion, by compression and for pungency, and by a 
figure, — an effect for a cause, a part for the whole — 
were wrought through His blood. Hebrew and Gen- 
tile alike are saved only through trust in Him .^— God 
manifest Who alone can forgive sins. His blood 
represents His life, not only physical, psychical, but 
spiritual. He is our life (Col. iii:3, 4) if we trust in 
Him for forgiveness on evidenced contrition. 



SALVATION — THEOUGH FORGIVING GRACE. 51 

Thus, it is evident, that, in unity and concord with 
the presumptions of natural reason, throughout the 
Bible, the chief condition of the forgiveness of sins 
was Godly sorrow for them, conjoined with all that is 
involved in emotion and act. True, the effects of sin 
upon others, and the Universe itself, would not be 
stayed, as we can apprehend; — that is, natural se- 
quence in the spiritual , as in the materia] jmust ensue 
and ever travel on. Nature, heartless materiality or 
immateriality, has no forgiveness for transgressions 
against its laws. Whether the life and death of Jesus 
— whether the manifestation of the sacrificial love of 
God the Father, in addition to the remedial means 
provided for the salvation of His prodigal children, 
were designed also to counteract and ultimately to 
utterly annihilate the malign influences, as well as to 
cancel the results of the unbalanced sins of the peni- 
tent's past, are unsolved mysteries as yet. In Romans 
viii:21, 22, as in the Parables of the Tares, and the 
Drag Net, are intimations in that direction. 

Jesus is the only Savior .of course since He was 
God thus manifest, and as such, of His paternal at- 
tributes and emotions, — in His speech, actions, suffer- 
ing, death, resurrection and ascension. Thus the 
repenting sinner may truly trust in Him as his per- 
sonal Savior; and by figure after the Levitical type, 
it is repeated, for compression of statement, and as 
the vividest representative of all the combined inci- 
dents in His suffering life and death, — culminating in 
this on the Cross; and chiefly for impression on He- 
brew believers, in whose thought the forgiveness of 
sins, ritual and real had ever been associated with 



52 THE CHRIST IN LIP!^. 

the shedding of blood; the repenting sinner may be 
said to be saved through the blood — that is, the death 
or the life of Jesus, — through both, since as is Scrip- 
turally affirmed: "The blood is the life." It was 
not intended surely that the phraseology should be 
literally interpreted and applied, viz: that the sinner 
can be saved through the shedding of this material 
blood, and that blood only, — exclusively of His human 
or Divine life, speech and actions, His resurrection 
and ascension, and of His renewing and sanctifying 
grace through the Spirit. Indeed, the Apostle in 
Homans v : 10, after stating,, that believers were recon- 
ciled to God through the death of His Son, also de- 
clares that having been reconciled they shall be 
saved through His life. Men are not saved by His 
material or spiritual sufferings at all, — by the expen- 
diture commercially ,of so much blood, so much 
scourging, so much excruciation of body, soul and 
spirit, from His baptism in the Jordan to His passion 
on the Cross. It could not be. These are exhibitions, 
proofs by illustration, of the undying love, the untir- 
ing patience, the exquisite tenderness, the unceasing 
readiness to forgive, on the part of God in the Christ 
— manifestations as best they could be of the suffer- 
ing with which the Father's heart is wrung, in reali- 
zation of the waywardness of a prodigal child — feeble 
representatives of what it thus cost — by a commercial 
figure, to save him. 

To repeat again : Forgiveness ensues upon the ac- 
ceptance by the sinner of its perpetual conditions, — 
Godly contrition with its manifested fruits. In such 
sorrow is involved the spiritual palingenesia required — 



SORROWS OF PARENTS — OVER WAYWARD CHILDREN. 53 

— ^preceding, simultaneous or succeeding, as the mys- 
tery of the point of time may be. Salvation is 
through forgiveness, thus conditioned. God having 
anciently spoken unto the Fathers in the Prophets by 
various portions and in various ways hath, in these 
last days, spoken unto us by His Son. Heb. i : 2. 
God was in this Son thus endeavoring to reconcile 
the world unto Himself. The world is summoned to 
believe on Him, since all previous manifestations of 
Him in the material creation, through angels and 
men, and declarations from Him through them, had 
failed to arrest the world in its fearfully downward 
career; — mankind are summoned to believe in this 
Christ as God Himself in manifestation. 

The sufferings of paternal, maternal hearts, good 
and large, are inexpressible; the visible effects on the 
body, soul and spirit, on account of a conscience 
seared, spirit-abandoned, lost child, are terrible in 
realization, witness or conception. Can there be a 
scene more appalling, more torturing to a father's or 
mother's heart? — a soul incarnated in a body — ^bone 
of thy bone and flesh of thy flesh! not only the body, 
but the soul itself bearing the stamp of heredity ! 
thou didst beget, thou didst bear, thou didst fondle, 
nourish and pet until budding maturity! thine own 
child turning its back on thee, and all that is sweet, 
pure and ennobling! on God, Heaven and the Angels! 
inevitably on the down grade, and swift to perdition ! 
— ^Lost? — It may be, lost forever! K 

I. The great defect in American families of this day, is want 
of government, and the responsibility, it is believed, rests upon 
very many of the mothers, who, unduly swayed by their impulses 



54 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

Ah God! can there be suffering, mental, spiritual 
— save from remorse, more intense? 

But, suffering in quantity, quality, intensity, is 
measured by capacity. Consider a parent mentally and 
emotionally endowed as was Edmund Burke ; that the 
heart strings as were his may be strung to such ten- 
sion that they quiver as an ^olian harp to the slightest 
touch of emotion. When all is well with the loved 
boy, in body, soul, culture, outlook; from those chords 
come chimes and trills, as if brushed by angel wings, 
or swept by airs from Heaven. But .further suppose, 
that upon such a father's mind, heart and culture, 
there has been the super-touch and finish of the Lord 

and sympathies, are unwilling that the children should be made 
to obey without question. They interfere with authority attempt- 
ed to be exercised ; — of course, authority is broken down. The 
plagues resultant, will ever be seen in the subsequent history of 
those children, and in society and government which they pro- 
portionally corrupt. American families might be instructed by 
God's regimen of His children, especially His selected ones. In 
the infancy, youthhood of their spiritual attainments, He pre- 
scribed immediate and constant obedience, without assignment of 
reasons. Jesus Himself forbore to reveal many things to His dis- 
ciples in the flesh, because they could not then bear — comprehend 
them. They were children in capacity for spiritual apprehension. 
Obedience 'without question! It would be a great blessing to Amer- 
ican boys, if for this purpose only, they were subjected for a short 
season to military discipline, as are German youth. Matth. viii: 
8-9; Luke vii: 7-8. Character is founded on habit. Habit is sel- 
dom eradicated or changed. 

The boy who has never learned to obey a rule when he was six 
or eight years old, will not obey anything very early, be it rule or 
principle, when he is twenty. No ! education must begin with 
the discipline of the law, with tender discipline if you will, but 
still with real discipline, if it is to end safely in the freedom of a 
life of principle. — Canon Liddon. 



SORROWS OF THE DIVINE FATHER AND MOTHER. 55 

Jesus Christ Himself — so that, through His refining 
spirit, the sensibilities have become susceptible to 
the utmost. 

Now let this boy — ushered into being under such 
auspicious circumstances, such inspiring conditions, 
with such magnificent possibilities, enter upon a ca- 
reer of dissipation. Let him turn a deaf ear to the 
incessant, tender pleadings and remonstrances of such 
a father and such a mother ! let him plunge deeper 
and deeper into excesses, into soul-damning practices, 
till all self-respect is gone! till he wallows like a 
brute! till he defies and blasphemes his Maker! till 
he is even unmoved, leers, scorns and curses even in 
the presence of those who begat him ! till he is con- 
science seared, God abandoned! till demons even 
here, take possession of him ! till he has reached the 
brink of perdition, about to take the awful plunge! 
Ah God! what must such a father, such a mother 
suffer ! 

Deep, low monotones, groans, moans of despair, 
wail from those heart strings — They snap in a jangle! 
— They are silent forever! 

Now .pass by one leap from attempted consider- 
ation of the sufferings of an earthly parent, thus de- 
veloped and refined .7— on account of a depraved son, 
to attempted thought upon what must be the suffer- 
ings of the Divine Father and Mother,^ — the Al- 

I. El^ the root of EloMm, the name under which God was 
known to the Israelites prior to their entry into Canaan, signifies 
the masculine sex only; while Jahveh^ or Jehovah^ denotes 
both sexes in combination. 

The two-fold name of Jehovah also finds a correspondence in 



56 THE CHKIST IN LIFE. 

miglity God, — Infinite Love Itself, under Its impul- 
ses, making all things, men in His own image — a 
little lower than the angels, throning them in the Uni- 
verse with such possibilities ; sufferings, on account, 
not only o£ the lapse of one, but of all the myriads of 
the human family ! 

He foresaw it, why did He create? Why did He 
not prevent ? 

The mystery * can't be grappled with. Let it alone — 
Touch it not. Hush! 'Tis a funereal hour. List to the 
muffled wailings o'er lost souls and a ruined world! 

Facts and their consequences are alone for consid- 
eration. — Wait! 

The sorrows and sufferings of finite human love! 
The sorrows and sufferings of Infinite, Deific Love! 
They are beyond conception. — They are beyond 
compare. 

Suffering! physical suffering! 'Twas exquisite, pro- 

the Arddha — Nari^ or incarnation o£ Brahma, who is represented 
in sculptures as combining in himself the male and female organ- 
isms . . . Aryan, Scandinavian, and Semitic religions were 
alike pervaded by it. — The Keys of the Creeds. 

Keshub Chunder Sen proclaimed the "Motherhood of God" as 
an idea correlative with that of the divine Fatherhood. " Many 
are ready to worship Me as their Father," he makes the Divinity 
say, "But they know not that I am their Mother, too ; tender, in- 
dulgent, forbearing, forgiving. Ye shall go forth from village to 
village, singing My mercies and proclaiming unto all men, that I 
am India's Mother." As a result of this, a band of twenty-five 
persons, among whom were nine missionaries, quitted Calcutta on 
the 24th of October, 1880, and traveled about 250 miles in five 
weeks, preaching everywhere the Motherhood of God. — India 
Mirror y etc.^ 1880. — Quoted by Count Goblet d' Alviella. 

I. The limitation of the Finite makes evil possible. — Leibnitz. 



SORROW OF THE FATHER — THROUGH THE SON. 57 

tractecl, indescribable through that sleepless night, 
the bloody sweat in Gethsemane, the knotted scourg- 
ing, the crucifixion! Suffering! spiritual suffering! 
'Tis not possible to conceive it. Others before Him 
and since have passed through series of physical tor- 
tures. Some — many while in the body have suf- 
fered the tortures of the damned, in remorse for their 
crimes. But on this One, — God in Him, rested the 
incubus of the sorrows of that Father for the sins of 
apostate men — children by His creation, in His image, 
for His glory involving their weal. These sorrows, 
it must be noted and impressed, were not the suffer- 
ing consequences, which all mankind should aggre- 
gately bear for their sins — legitimately or statutorily 
made penal for a substitutional purpose — which penal 
consequences, advocates of a literal atonement by 
Jesus the Christ allege must have rested and pressed 
upon Him for the last hours in Gethsemane, and on 
the Cross, — as if it were possible; but the suffering 
grief of the Father, thus finally manifested for the 
aggregate ingratitude and rebellion of the race to 
that hour, — children He had made, fostered, and ever 
blessed. The Incarnation was a manifestation and 
demonstration, — proof palpable to sense in Human 
form, and for spiritual realization, of His unceasing 
love for those children, notwithstanding their accu- 
mulating corruption. In Gethsemane and through 
the Cross, were some of the manifestations of all that 
is possible to human appreciation of His infinite grief 
for their continued rejection of Him, as their God 
and Father. Under these sorrows, He writhed 
through the blackness of the spiritual darkness to 



58 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

the culminating cry of the Human: My God! My 
God! why dost Thou abandon Me? The earth shiv- 
ered and draped itself in sympathy with the wail. 
But men are not saved through these sufferings, as 
atoning substitutes or equivalents for their guilt. 
They were the climax of all the sacrificial instrumen- 
talities for the salvation of men, from the birth of 
the first Adam through successive generations to 
the crucifixion of the Second, — the personal manifes- 
tation of God Himself in Jesus — His Christ. They 
were the greatest manifestation, as is conceived to be 
possible, the most impressive illustration of the love 
of God — the Divine Father, for His rebellious children. 
Such sufferings do not, cannot, atone for men's sins. 
They are the divine means for the divine ends, — ^not 
substitutes or equivalents for them. Sin cannot he 
atoned for. It can be forgiven upon the manifesta- 
tion of the Godly contrition required. The general 
consequence of the violation of moral law, as of ma- 
terial, — sin, must abide until stayed or eliminated 
by Almighty interposition from the constitution and 
course of His Universe. To do this may be a por- 
tion of the mission of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 
earth. As human logic serves, such eradication is 
not possible, save ,as with God all things are possible. 
Has He interposed, — does He thus interpose, so far 
as human experience and observation instruct? It is 
evident . however , that the legitimate or statutory 
penalty involved in inseparable consequence, "the 
other half of crime," ^ upon the individual sinner 

I. Punishment is not some thing arbitrary; it is the other half 
of crime. — Hegel. 



SORROWS OF THE DIVINE FATHER AND MOTHER. 59 

himself, personally and isolatedly, for his sins, — not 
upon others or things external to him, — through his 
enticement, influence conscious or unconscious, and 
example, — can be, and is averted or stayed upon his 
Godly sorrow for them. This is demonstrated by 
revelation and experience. Consequences upon his 
body, indeed upon his soul, to the extent that they 
have crippled its spiritual energy and usefulness, are 
not, cannot be, as is conceived, stayed on repentance. 
His soul will take with it into the Celestial State, the 
scars of the ravages of its deflections from right and 
duty; to that extent.it must be disabled in its spirit- 
ual progression. Much less, can the evil consequences 
of his sins upon the souls and bodies of others, — the 
Universe at large, be stayed, except as the Almighty 
doth interpose. But the sinner upon his Godly con- 
trition is rescued from perdition, though so as 
through fire, — a brand snatched from it. 

Are the sufferings of God in Christ, so mysterious 
and so overwhelming in the witness of some of their 
external, their material effects, that they are not, at 
least, somewhat apprehensible and intelligible, in the 
light of Parental suffering, and of baffled Love, — that 
of Father and Mother — God?— God in Christ 9^ 

I. It was God Who looked forth on men through the ejes of 
Christ, God Who spoke to men through the voice of Christ, God 
Who beamed on men from the face of Christ. It was God, — His 
majesty and power, His purity and wisdom. His abhorrence of 
evil and infinite pity for evil-doers. His gentleness and patience, 
His meekness and His boundless mercy, which were unveiled 
through the whole life, and in the whole spirit of Christ. The 
very heart of God, in its deepest fountains, was laid open, and was 
seen to gush forth in the tears and in the life-blood of Christ. 



60 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

Is there room for, — is there need of the interposi- 
tion of materialistic theories, — of blood atonement, of 
commercial satisfaction, of rendition to Justice, — eye 
for an eye, tooth for a tooth, of governmental vindi- 
cation, in their literal, earthy limitations, their tech- 
nical, legal narrowness and complication, for satisfac- 
tory solution of such Tragedy? 

It was through these means to impress men, that God 
was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. 
The atonement, f] xaxallayr,^ more correctly, the recon- 
ciliation, is in it, — so many as choose to be reconciled, 
not Him. There is no parallax in Him. Jas. i:17. 
Men are saved through His sovereign grace and pur- 
pose, whenever the pre-required Godly sorrow is dis- 
cerned and manifested. The Apostle authoritatively 
declares: — God Who saved us, and called us with a 
holy calling, not according to our works, but accord- 
ing to His own purpose and grace, which was given 
us in Christ Jesus .before times eternal, but hath now 
been manifested by the Epiphany of our Savior, 
Christ Jesus, etc. II Tim i : 9. 

He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life; but 
he that obeyeth not the Son shall not see life, but the 
wrath of God abideth on him. John iii : 36. Indeed, 
since He was the manifestation of God Himself, and 
he that refuses to believe, obey Him, refuses to be- 
lieve, obey very God manifest; and the blood (the 

Christ was full of God, up to the highest limit of the capacity of a 
pure human soul. Christ was full of God, — breathing out, stream- 
ing forth, brimming over with the divine, that the divine, through 
His mediation, might re-enter men's souls, and might subdue, 
quicken and restore them. — John Toitng. 



THE CHRIST WITHIN — ^CLEANSES AND SAVES. 61 

life) of Jesus Christ, His 8oii r— God in Him, cleans- 
eth us from all sin.^ I John i:7. 

Indeed! very deed! since it is the vividest repre- 
sentative of the sacrifice of the Son of God, not solely 
on Calvary, but from His advent to and exit from 
earth, the conception of which most startles and im- 
presses men, — the culmination of all the sorrows and 
sufferings of His tragic life compressed and repre- 
sented in and by one crimson word; since the shed- 
ding of blood had ever been associated with forgive- 
ness of sins in the mind of the Hebrew, to whom 
John's Epistle, with that to the Hebrews, was specifi- 
cally addressed, and for whom, in fact, most of the 

I. "If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, then have we 
fellowship one with another " — God with us, and we with God — 
"and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth" — is ever 
cleansing — " us from all sin." . . . There is one mysterious 
and mighty institute of purification. It is symbolized in the Cross. 
Love, the love of God, is the spiritual antidote to human sin, but 
not love alone, . . . but self-sacrificing love, incarnate, cruci- 
fied love — love which has wept over men, which has groaned and 
bled, and died for men — love, streaming out in the life-blood of 
the Loving One. It is a fact, not a dogma, the fact of profoundest 
mental experience, which lies in these inspired words : " The 
blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, is cleansing us from all sin." It 
ever is cleansing us ; — a present, invincible virtue goes forth from 
it, to beget in us a wonderful abhorrence of evil, and a wonderful 
longing for purity, and to renew the defiled soul to humble, loving 
obedience! — John Toung. 

The blood of Christ is, as shed, the life of Christ given for men, 
and, as offered, the life of Christ now given for men, the life 
which is the spring of their life. John xii:24. The blood always 
includes the thought of the life preserved and active beyond 
death. . . . Participation in Christ's blood is participation in 
His life. John vi : 53-56. — Goldvjin Smith, 



62 THE CHBIST IN LIFE. 

New Testament literature was prepared; since it was 
His physical, perhaps psychical life, — comprehensive, 
perhaps, of His celestial being in quality as in dura- 
tion; since He was God Manifest Who only can for- 
give sins, — the Pleroma of the Godhead, — over all, 
God blessed forever, — the Beginning and the End, — 
the First and the Last; — of Him, through Him, unto 
Him are all things, to Whom be the glory forever! 
Yes, and the Apostle also avers, that much more, 
being reconciled to God through the death of His 
Son, shall we be saved by His life. Rom. v : 10. 

In Romans viii:24, the Apostle declares that we 
are saved by hope; and in Eph. ii:5, 8, that by grace 
ye have been saved; . . . for by grace have ye 
been saved through faith ; Luke vii : 50, xviii : 42 ; Acts 
xvi:31, etc.; and the Savior Himself avers, in Matth. 
X : 22, that he who continues steadfast in his fealty to 
Him through tribulation and temptation to the end 
shall be saved. Men are declared to be saved, instru- 
mentally, through the Gospel and its preaching. I 
Cor. i:21, xv:2. By constant fidelity in the ministry, 
the same Apostle declares, that Timothy shall save 
both himself and his hearers. I Tim. iv:16. The 
word implanted, £/j.^utovj — the word connate, the lit- 
eral word introduced and stored in thought, or pri- 
marily engendered in the soul by the Spirit, declares 
James, is able to save souls. James i:21. He also 
declares, that he who shall turn about or back (in- 
strumentally) a sinner from the error of his way 
shall save a soul from death, etc., James v: 20; and 
Peter (I Pet. iii:21,) affirms, that Baptism even, the 
answer of a good conscience toward God — symbol of 



SALVATION — THROUGH VARIOUS PROCESSES. 63 

its subject's death and burial to sin, and resurrection 
from it to the new life in Christ, saves him. 

Salvation is wrought by various instrumentalities, 
and through successive spiritual states — all deriv- 
ative of course from its source and fountain-head — 
God in Christ. According to His mercy, He saved 
us through the laver of regeneration, and ren- 
ovation of the Holy Spirit; Titus iii: 5. Salvation . 
can with propriety .be said to be conditioned on the 
passage of the soul through any single one of these 
processes, since it must be included from the incip- 
iency to the consummation of such Divine work in 
a soul. 

The blood is the life. Deut. xii : 23. He that eat- 
eth My flesh and drinketh My blood (he that feedeth 
upon My life) hath eternal life; and I will raise him 
up at the last day. John vi : 54. 

What is the import in personal application to thee, 
what is specifically signified by the material, the fa- 
miliar symbols employed, is for thee, believer, and 
for thee, unbeliever, — poor sinners like the rest of us, 
to undertake to apprehend. Let it henceforth ring 
and reverberate in the chambers of thy soul. : — 

Verily, verily, I say unto you: Except ye eat the 
flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood — i. e., 
feed upon His life, — ye have not life in yourselves. 
John vi:53. 

Carefully considering His own declarations, and 
the specific statements of the Scriptures as to His 
being and mission; that He the Son .was One with 
the Father — God, — not merely in unity of thought, 
emotion and purpose, but One hypostatically ; that He 



64: THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

was the manifestation of God; and giving only to 
symbols and metaphors employed such interpreta- 
tion, scope and application as were designed and are 
allowed in the use of material analogies; various 
affirmations as the following as to His work and mis- 
sion should not be difficult in apprehension: 

"Died; suffered for our sins; the just for the un- 
just; gave Himself for our sins; made purification of 
sins; Who His own Self bear our sins in His body 
upon the Tree; was manifested to take away our sins; 
He made His soul an offering for sin; He put away 
sin by the sacrifice of Himself; was sacrificed for us; 
was made sin (or sin offering — sacrificial victim) for 
us; bear the sins of many; one sacrifice for sins for- 
ever; bought with a price; the propitiation for our 
sins, and also for the sins of the whole world; died 
for the ungodly; Who loved us and washed us from 
our sins in His blood; reconciled us to God by His 
blood; gave His life a ransom for many; redeemed 
us to God by His own blood; His blood was shed for 
many for the remission of sins; His blood cleanseth 
from all sin; we are justified freely by God's grace 
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; God 
was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, 
not reckoning unto them their trespasses ; Christ pur- 
chased us from the curse of the law, having become 
a curse for us; tasted death for every man." 

In self-denial, suffering and physical death, in the 
grief and anguish wrung out of His suffering heart 
on account of His wayward children; and primarily 
for the clear apprehension of the Hebrews, who clung 
with such inveterate tenacity to their ritual observ- 



VARIETY OF SYMBOLS. THEIR DESIGN. 65 

ances for purification from ritual sin , and as doubt- 
less many of them did from real sin ; by one symbol, 
God in tlie Christ was said to be a "sacrifice," and an 
"offering;" by anothei' ,as "propitiation;" by another, 
"reconciliation;" by another, "ransom;" by another, 
"curse," or legal penalty; by another, "blood for 
cleansing;" by others, as "the Way, the Truth and 
the Life;" "the Light of the World;" "the Light of 
Life;" "the Lamb of God Which taketh away the 
sin of the world;" " Lamb without spot or blemish;" 
"Priest forever after the order of Melchisedec;" "our 
Passover;" "an Offering and Sacrifice to God for a 
fragrant Odor;" "the Bridegroom;" "the Yine;" "the 
Good Shepherd;" "the Door to the sheep-fold;" "the 
Bread and Water of life;" "the Head Stone;" "the 
Corner Stone," etc. ; — as if the Spirit, and He Him- 
self would exhaust all possible analogies in material 
existence, and in human experience or conception, for 
illustration, — to make unmistakably pellucid to every 
grade of intellect and intelligence, among Gentiles as 
well as Jews, to sinners in all conditions and vocations 
of life, in every age to end of time, the relation in which 
God the Father manifested through His Son in hu- 
manity ,stood in relation to His sinning children. Every 
Godly father, whose soul has been touched with sor- 
row, — whose heart has been wrung with anguish in 
the consideration of the persistent waywardness of 
his child, — whose death thereby will be hastened; — 
cherishing the hope, that that self-denial, suffering 
and death may serve to awaken that child to a reali- 
zation of his fearful guilt, and of consequent impend- 

5 



66 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

ing ruin, has had a touch, at least, in sympathetic ap- 
prehension of what all such symbolic terms, — as 
"sacrifice," "propitiation," "ransom," "penalty," 
"curse," "blood," "shed," and "for cleansing," with 
the rest of them, signify in such tender relations and 
in such sufferings correlated with them. 

Let be said then, by summary, though it be repe- 
titional, that in addition to the natural provision for 
the forgiveness of sins, upon Godly sorrow therefor, — 
that comforting assurance in consciousness being in- 
wrought in the mental and moral constitution; in 
addition to .and over it all, that there is a certain 
efficacy and saving power (the special manner and 
way of its application and accomplishment not having 
been fully, if partially apprehended as yet) in the 
mission of Jesus, — His life, sufferings, death, resur- 
rection and ascension, — cannot be denied; since His 
declarations and those of the Apostles are so abundant 
and explicit thereto. But if it will ever be considered, 
that He was God Himself in manifestation, — given 
the terrestrial name of Jesus or Savior, thus endeav- 
oring to reconcile the world unto Himself, there will 
not be, it is believed, so much difficulty in the appre- 
hension or solution of the mystery of their correlation 
with the forgiveness and ensuing salvation of the 
sinner. The Reconciler thus, Savioi is God in the 
Christ Who thus conditioned r^v xaraXXayijv — the rec- 
onciliation, as He ever did from the first. The sacri- 
fice and suffering of His paternal heart, though not 
visibly apparent until this Theophany, were declared 
and specified in His Word. Then, upon His assump- 
tion of a human form, the partial exhibit of His suf- 



THE RECONCILING SAVIOR, — GOD IN THE CHRIST'. 67 

fering Love for His disobedient children, for three 
years of the one-third century of this Manifestation, was 
so terrestrially palpable, that there can be no possi- 
bility of its failing to be discerned by all the candid, 
— the honest minded. He was God in the Christ, — 
thus proclaiming in Person the condition of Recon- 
ciliation. This ministry of it was, and is, as can be 
conceived, the most august and stupendous display of 
His love for the beings He had made in His own 
image. Sacrifice and suffering there were, of course, 
— the inevitable concomitants of such mission. But . 
that they were designed for, or could be made an 
atonement for sin, in the sense of equivalence, satis- 
faction, compensation, expiation, substitution, gov- 
ernmental vindication, cancellation; an equivalent 
quantity of merit for the atonement — the covering 
over from terrestrial, celestial, or Deific vision of the 
quantity of demerit in the entire human family, — from 
the first Adam. or the Second ,to the last man; the 
utter extinction of it as fact from the Universe, — is 
not rationally apprehensible, upon the conviction that 
what has mentally or morally transpired cannot be 
recalled, undone. Matter itself is unannihilable, — 
subject only to transformation. The word, the act, 
the desire cannot be as though they had not been, 
though the sinfulness involved may be repented of, 
and be forgiven. The record and the memory thereof 
must abide. Such atonement for the guilt of another 
by One innocent, if it can be, transcends and contra- 
venes equity, as humanly conceived. If it be in ad- 
dition by One — Deific, and possible; a believer like 
Paul, could only exclaim with profounder bewilder- 



68 THE CHBIST IN LIFE. 

ment and deeper intensity, than did that great Apostle : 
O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the 
knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judg- 
ments, and His ways past tracing out! Bom. xi:33. 
But is it not to be supposed, that the Divine Father 
would make His way of salvation plain, so as to com- 
mend itself to the apprehension and to the apprecia- 
tion of His children in all ages ? It is believed He 
has so done. 

Men in gross moral darkness, without the light of 
immediate revelation oral or written, conceiving their 
Deity to be a "magnified" man — like themselves 
anthropopathically, deemed an external Mediator, 
terrestrial or celestial, essential to secure favor from 
Him, or to placate Him Here or Hereafter. Men 
also under the light of the revelation through Moses, 
and, under the ritualistic regimen instituted by him, 
conscious of their real or ceremonial transgression, 
and of their utter inability in themselves to keep 
commandments to perfection, and to satisfy their 
requisitions when violated, regarded such intercession 
mediatorial with their Jehovah, necessary for the 
same purposes. 

It is sufficient to refer to the plague alleged to be 
stayed by the prayer of Moses ; — the intercession of 
Abraham for Sodom, and for Abimelech; of Job for 
his friends; the illustrations in the lives of David, 
Hezekiah, Nehemiah and Daniel. But these indicate 
their very limited, contracted apprehension of the 
nature and attributes of Jehovah. They evidently 
supposed He was a being like themselves, more or 
less over-swayed by passion, magnified of course in- 



THE MEBCIFUL AND THE INTERCESSORY IN GOD. 69 

definitely. Ps. 1:21. Tliey had not come into the 
fuller apprehension of the latter days through Chris- 
tianity, and through human reason developed and 
sanctified thereby. The God of the nineteenth cen- 
tury of the Christian era with Christianized persons, 
is not the capricious, changeable Jahveh of the anti- 
diluvian or post-diluvian times — swayed on provoca- 
tives by gusts of passion, as are sometimes large 
minded and good men, and as are very many ordinary 
men. He is superlatively Good as He is Almighty, 
Supreme, Absolute, and Eternal. His being and na- 
ture are Love. He is holy, equable, unchangeable, 
constant, stable. "I am the Lord. I change not." 
Malachi. iii: 6. Numbers xxiii: 19. He is omnis- 
cent, and needs not to be apprised of the circumstan- 
ces and necessities of His creatures. He is suscepti- 
ble in Himself, and exclusively on His sole motion. 
The merciful, the intercessory qualities are constit- 
uent in His being, therefore complete. They were 
specially manifested in His representative Christ. 
He ever responds promptly, fully, to the requisition 
of the sinner, — his cry for help upon the manifesta- 
tion of the Godly contrition required. He does not 
thus graciously and fully respond without compliance 
with such conditions; not because He is not apprised 
of the sinner's forlorn situation, or because He is not 
willing to extend the priceless boon to him, without 
hesitation and without pleading ; but because He knows, 
that suitable relief to a want not realized, compliant 
response to cry not extorted out of realization of lost 
and helpless state, would not be appreciated, and might 
serve to brace the beleagured soul in self-reliance, to 



70 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

foster confidence in its own self -sufficiency and inde- 
pendence, — to intensify neglect, perhaps, defiance, 
of his Maker. " Is not this the great Babylon I have 
built by the might of my power, and for the honor of 
my majesty?" What a transformation was there of 
his thought and its expression, when he came to him- 
self, from the depths of his abasement, his expulsion, 
his abandonment by God! He doeth according to 
His will in the army of Heaven, and among the in- 
habitants of earth; and none can stay His hand, or 
say unto Him, what doest Thou? . . . All His 
works are truth, and His ways judgment, and those 
that walk in pride, He is able to abase. Dan. iv. 

But, to such exposition of His goodness, there ever 
should be super-added, that of His severity. Eom. 
xi:22. The vindicatory and the condemnatory are in 
inseparable junction with the merciful and the inter- 
cessory. They are the obverse and the reverse sides 
of His nature. 

Jesus — the Son of God — the Son of Man ascended 
to His Father — ^being One with Him .as He averred. 
Death, resurrection, and ascension, involved the 
sloughing of the fleshly integuments, the aban- 
donment of terrestrial habiliments and conditions 
assumed. He manifested Himself for a short period 
after His ascension to His disciples, visibly, tangibly, 
with the same wounds in hands, feet and side, or their 
celestial counterpart; He ate and drank for the con- 
firmation of their faith — that He still lived to do all 
He had pledged; — whether in an exclusively celestial- 
ized or terrestrial body, cannot be determined from 
the records. Perhaps both the terrestrial and celes- 



NO DUPLEX OR TRIPLEX GOD ON THE THRONE. 71 

tial were interchangeably assumed, as occasion de- 
manded. 

So far as is revealed and can be apprehended, 
there can be no duple or triple headed Divinity on 
the Throne of the Universe. In accommodation to 
the spiritual limitations of disciples, and for the sat- 
isfaction of their aspirations, He declared, by a figure, 
that He went to prepare mansions for them, which 
being God He does. John xii: 26, xiv: 3, xvii:24:. It 
is also declared by a figure, that He was, is, and shall 
be at the right hand of Power, or God. Dan. vii:13, 
Matth. xix:28, xxiv:30, xxv:31, xxvi:64, Mark xii: 36, 
xiii:26, xiv: 62, xvi:19, Luke xx: 42, xxi:27, xxii:69, 
Acts ii: 33, vii:55, 56, Eom, viii:34, Eph. 1:20, Col. 
iii : 1, Heb. i : 3, viii : 1, x : 12, xii : 2, I Pet. iii : 22. The 
Apostle, Eom. viii: 34, Heb. vii:25, ix:24, as in I John 
ii:l, also, to impress that class of believers specifi- 
cally addressed, affirmed that He Jesus, after the 
similitude of their ritual High Priest, ever liveth to 
make intercession for tried and sujffering disciples, 
which Love in God r— comprising the Intercessory 
qualities moving upon His Justice t— embodying the 
Vindicatory, ever does. It is also declared, and un- 
conditionally in Eev. i:18, I am the First and the 
Last, and the Living One. ... I am alive for- 
evermore; and the Apostle in Heb. xiii:8, also 
averred that Jesus the Christ, is the same yesterday, 
and to-day, and forever. This would be true, what- 
ever were the conditions of His being in the Heavens, 
— ^whether God in the distinctive, celestialized Christ, 
through Whom alone God may be able to be seen in 
Glory,— since He is Spirit pure and illimitable; or. 



72 THE CHKIST IN LIFE. 

Avhetlier Christ in God — subsistent in and consub- 
stantial with Him. God is the Christ and the Christ 
is God. Conception of Fatherhood and Sonhood, — 
taken in literality and not in figure, — still existing in 
the Heavens, — two Personalities distinct, co-ordinate 
or inco-ordinate, involves belief in a Duality on the 
Throne. Both must be jointly co-ordinate, or one 
must be primitive and the other derivative. The Unity 
of the Godhead is nullified by such hypothesis; and 
the belief that God was in the Christ, — very God in 
such manifestation as is possible with such limita- 
tions through the medium of a human form, would 
be confounded or destroyed. Prayer, for the want 
of singleness and directness in address, becomes a 
shuttle-cock of the heart driven by the battle-door of 
the mind — interchangeably from one Being to the 
Other, often confounded in the supplication, — is con- 
fused and unsatisfactory to the aspiring soul. Jesus, 
by precept and example in His universal, and in His 
intercessory prayer, taught us to address God, Our 
Father, when we pray. 

He was the son of Man in His earthly relations, — 
Son of God in the Divine. The Father and the Son 
were and are hypostatically One. Representation that 
the ascended Jesus is an Intercessor with God in 
Heaven, for succor and forgiveness to His disciples 
left behind Him, and to all who should believe in 
Him through their word, is based, it is believed, 
on the fact, that the same merciful characteristics and 
intercessory qualities exist in God in Heaven, as they 
did in His manifestation in the Christ on the earth. 

If Jesus in Heaven is a Personality distinct from 



GOD SEEN THROUGH THE CELESTIALIZED CHRIST. 73 

God Himself, — really in Man Form, " at His right 
hand," so that He can be conceived of, and appealed to, 
as the Intercessor with, and distinctively from God 
on behalf of His saved ones, it must be in His glori- 
fied humanity, though with the Theophany still, as 
was on the earth. He then must appear there the 
highest and the grandest of all the saints in light, 
such as Moses, Samuel, Daniel, John Baptist, Paul, — 
the glorified and alone perfect Man. Would He, or 
would He not, thus be presented by stress of human 
logic, to be less than God, though more than man and 
angels ? But since God is a Spirit pure and illimit- 
able, and cannot be seen by terrestrial or celestial- 
ized eyes,^ even in the Celestial State; probably He 
will only be manifested to the saints in light, as 
to Angels, — through the celestialized Person of Jesus 
the Christ, as He was upon the earth, through Him 
in the Flesh. He will be God in Him There, as He 
was Here. 

All prayer then, thus and solely directed, would be 
relieved of the confusion and indirectness with which 

I. Thou canst not see My face; for there shall no man see Me, 
and live. — Ex. xxxiii: 20. 

God is Spirit. — John iv: 24 

No man hath seen God at any time ; the only begotten Son, He 
being in the bosom of the Father, hath made Him known. — JoJin 
i: 18; I John iv: 12. 

Whom no man hath seen, nor can see. — I Tim. vi: 16. 

Ye have neither heard His (Father's) voice at any time, nor 
seen His form. — Johii v.-jy. 

If ye had known Me, ye would have known My Father also : 
from henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him. — John xiv:^. 



74 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

all human petition is attended without such concep- 
tion. Addresses to Him then, would be directly to 
the Intercessory — Mediate — God in Christ, or Christ 
in God, — not directly to illimitable Spirit, — the Al- 
mighty, the Eternal, the Infinite, the Absolute. 
Probably then any direct, specific glimpse of God, 
by the saints in light will be and only .through and 
in the celestialized form of Jesus, though the Uni- 
verse, with its myriads of terrestrials and celestials, its 
celestial and terrestrial things, personal experiences 
and historical providences, will still declare His being, 
power, character and glory. 

If Jesus having been the highest possible mani- 
festation ^of God in a human form, — Man, with all the 
human qualities in perfectness and purity, as well as 
"the Pleroma of the Godhead bodily," — that is, to 
the extent of possible manifestation of such "Pleroma" 
of Deific qualities and perfections in "bodily" human 
form, — has not passed into, and does not abide in the 
Heavens, individually, personally, distinctively from 
the Godhead, — the necessity and the occasion for 
such Deific manifestation on the earth until the Sec- 
ond Advent, save for a short period after the Ascension, 

He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father: how say est thou, 
shew us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, 
and the Father in Me ? the words that I say unto you I speak not 
from Myself ; but the Father abiding in Me doeth His works. 
Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me : or else 
believe Me for the very works' sake. — John xiv:g-ii. 

It will be noticed, that, in all those passages of the Old Testa- 
ment, in which it is declared God or His glory was seen, it was 
through His angels or messengers, or through some symbolical 
representation. 



THE INTERCESSORY AND CONDEMNATORY IN GOD. 75 

and some celestial glimpses since, having ceased with 
the cry: ^^ It is finished!''' then, He cannot be singled 
out there aside from God as the Intercessor with 
Him on behalf of His children; the human qualities . 
intellectual, moral, spiritual, in their perfection and 
purity ,being constituent elements of God's nature 
— have been ever in Him; all prayer therefore must 
be directed immediately to God the Father, being 
Intercessor and the Interceded With, Father and 
Son, God and Savior, Mercy and Justice, the Inter- 
cessory qualities and the Condemnatory in equipoise, 
— the Obverse and the Reverse sides of His divine na- 
ture. Mercy and Truth have met together. Right- 
eousness and Judgment have kissed each other. Ps. 
Ixxxv: 10. Righteousness and Judgment are the hab- 
itation of His throne. Mercy and Truth shall go be- 
fore His face. Ps. lxxxix:14, xcvii:2. 

Did, then, the Theophany through Jesus the Christ, 
the terrestrial or the time distinction between the 
Father and the Son, terminate at the Ascension? 

If the declaration is not to be interpreted figura- 
tively and as a symbol, but as heralding a coming 
event, in junction with its object the most portentous; 
then such Theophany will be resumed, — when He 
will he seen, as is averred, coming on the clouds of 
Heaven with great power and glory, and with attend- 
ant angels. Each, — every eye shall see Him, it is 
declared, even those who pierced Him! Rev. i:7; and 
in the Celestial State, — also declared: His servants 
shall see His face. Rev. xxii:4, Matth. xxiv:30, xxvi* 
64, Mark xiii:26, xiv:62, I Thess. iv:17. 

These are mysteries, into which men, as well as 



76 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

Angels, desire to look. Do not Scriptures, God-in- 
spired, encourage and authorize the Human to cherish 
and to indulge in such desire ? 

To such conclusions ,does the logic of thought con- 
duct. But logic must give place to the weakness, 
necessities, and aspirations of the human soul — in 
earthly limitations, from carnal impulsion; to Pro- 
phetic symbols, and Apostolic declarations. 

If this conception of Jesus the Christ in Heaven — 
as the Mediator, Intercessor, Manifestation of Deific 
Personality, or a Personality distinct from God's, at 
least in presentation, — the Supreme Object of poor 
human trust and belief, — the Cynosure of " every eye," 
be stricken out of the Beatific^ Vision disclosed to the 
dying Stephen and the ecstasied John; then most 
precious aspirations and hopes through the Christian 
ages, cries unutterable and too deep for tears, — at- 
tempted to be compressed in penitential psalms and 
adoring hymns, in appealing invocations and wailing 
litanies, — cumulating in the climax of supplication to 
Him of the Triune, — struggling now, as ever for ex- 
pression, will be repressed, no longer cherishable, 
and .for prayer. Oh ! we must be permitted in our hu- 
man weakness, if weakness it be, still to cry, and to 
sing with the blood-washed millions of the past, the 
present and the future: — 

I. Attended with ten thousand thousand saints, 
He onward came ; far off His coming shone. 

— Paradise Lost. Booh VI. 

I did think, I did see all Heaven before me, and the Great God 
Himself. — Handel^ on the composition of his '•'■ Hallelujah Chorus^'* 



HE IS OVER ALL, GUD-BLESSED FOREVER ! 77 

Jesus ! Lover of my soul, 

Let me to Thy bosom fly, 
While the billows near me roll, 

While the tempest still is nigh! 
Hide me, O my Savior ! hide, 

Till the storm of life is past; 
Safe into the haven guide ; 

O receive my soul at last! 

Other refuge have I none ; 

Hangs my helpless soul on Thee ! 
Leave, ah ! leave me not alone, 

Still support and comfort me ! 
All my trust on Thee is stayed ; 

All my help from Thee I bring ; 
Cover my defenceless head. 

With the shadovi^ of Thy w^ing ! 

— Wesley. 

If this be only a symbol of the unspeakable, inde- 
scribable reality; let be; we will still cling to it, till 
we wake with His likeness; for we know if Scripture 
be of God that, when He celestialized shall be ap- 
parent again, we shall be like Him, for we shall see 
Him even as He is — Over All, God-blessed Forever! 
Ps. xvii: 15, I John iii:2, Eom. ix:5. 



Mere acts of the understanding are neither right nor wrong. . 
. . In the Scriptures, . . . faith and unbelief are mental 
acts, ... or joint products of the understanding and heart ; 
and on this account alone they are objects of approbation or re- 
proof. . . . Opinions cannot be laid down as unerring and 
immutable signs of virtue and vice. The very same opinion may 
be virtuous in one man, and vicious in another, supposing it, as is 
very possible, to have originated in different states of mind. 

The time is come when religious bodies will be estimated by 
the good they do^ when creeds are to be less and less the test of the 
Christian, and when they, who labor most effectually for their fel- 
low beings, will be acknowledged to give the best proof of having 
found the truth. 

Our religion is at this moment adopted, and passionately de- 
fended by vast multitudes on the ground of the very same pride, 
worldliness, love of popularity, and blind devotion to hereditary 
prejudices, which led the Jews and heathen to reject it in the 
primitive age ; and the faith of the first is as wanting in virtue, as 
was the infidelity of the last. — Dr. Charming. 

Perhaps in no previous age, has there been witnessed such an 
exhibition of decorous plausibilities and apparent sincerity in re- 
ligious profession, combined with melancholy deficiencies of truth 
and integrity in trade, commerce, and all dealings between man 
and man, as at the present time. — Triumph of Good over Evil. 

Therefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Not every one 
that saith unto me. Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of 
Heaven, but he that doeth the will of My Father Who is in 
Heaven. — Matth. vii: 20. 

For they say, and do not. — Matth. xxiit: iii. 



(78) 



CHAPTEE II. 



THE CREED IN THE DEED. 

Except a man be born from above, he cannot see the Kingdom 
of God. — John iti.'j. 

He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life ; and he who dis- 
obeys the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on 
him. — John in:j6. 

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with 
all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and 
thy neighbor as thyself. . . . This do, and thou shalt live. — 
Luke X : 27^ 28. 

If ye love them that love you, what merit can you claim .'' for 
even sinners love those that love them. And if ye do good to 
them that do good to you, what merit can you claim } for even 
sinners do the same. And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope 
to receive, what merit can you claim.'* even sinners lend to sinners, 
to receive again as much. — Luke vi: J2-J4. 

Thou therefore that teachest another, teachest thou not thy- 
self.'' thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal.? 
etc. — Romans ii: 21. 

Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not unto one of 
these least ye did it not unto Me. — Matth. xxv-^j. 

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not 
love, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal ; and if I 
have prophetic gift, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; 
and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, 
I am nothing. And if I distribute all I have to feed the poor, and 

(79) 



80 THE CHKIST IN LIFE. 

if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth 
me nothing. — / Cor. xiit: i-j. 

Let your light shine before men that they may see your good 
works, and glorify your Father Who is in Heaven. — Matth v: i6. 

"Walk as children of light. — Eph. v: 8. 

So we also might walk in a new life. — Rom. vi: 4. 

In purity, in knowledge, in long-suffering, in kindness, etc 
// Cor vi: 6 

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kind- 
ness, goodness, faithfulness, lenity, self-mastery, etc. — Gal, v:22-^. 

Whatever things are true. 

Whatever things are revered, 

Whatever things are just, 

Whatever things are pure, 

Whatever things are lovely, 

Whatever things are commendable, 

Whatever virtue, whatever praiseworthy, — 

Prize these things. — Phil. iv:8' 

Eepentance, therefore, — Godly contrition for sin, — 
an act of the soul apprehended by the weakest, 
whereupon forgiveness can be secured, and the Heav- 
enly inheritance thereafter attained, was the prime 
burden of the Savior's ministry. "R'^pent!" cried 
He, as if the message had been thundered upon His 
hearers for the first time, "for the Kingdom of 
Heaven is at hand." Indeed, aside from the moni- 
tions of conscience in every one, it was thus for the 
first time, in public declaration to the mass of the 
common people, and the mongrel rabble ^then in 
Judea and Galilee. Intelligent Hebrews, as was 
foretold, when they heard did not understand; and, 
when they saw did not perceive. The two first 
classes, in their ignorance and destitution, did not 
read ,or hear read the Hebrew or the Aramean Scrip- 



REPENTANCE THE CONDITION OF FOrvGIVENESS. 81 

tures, or the Septuagint Version at all. But as the 
Apostle said: the times of ignorance therefore God 
overlooked; but no^ as then commanding men that 
they should all, everywhere, repent. Acts xvii:30. 
He that believeth on the Son hath eonian life, — true 
life in quality as in eternal duration, and he that 
believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath 
of God abideth on him. John iii : 36. Thus He dis- 
coursed to the end. As he was about to ascend, He 
impressively charged His disciples: Go ye into all 
the world, and preach the Gospel to the whole crea- 
tion. He that believes and is baptized shall be saved; 
but he that does not believe shall be condemned. 
Mark xvi : 16. Salvation on the part of God is easy, 
since as a Father He yearns that all repenting 
should return unto Him, be forgiven and be saved. 
Salvation on the x^art of the sinner is difficult, because 
he is indisposed to heed the gracious entreaty. 

What belief is in the Christ's acceptation needs 
no exposition in our time. It is a persuasion, that 
what He affirmed was true. It is not mere intellectual 
assent to Truth. Thou believest God is One; thou 
doest well. Demons also believe and shudder. James 
ii : 19. With the heart man believeth unto righteous- 
ness; and with the mouth confession is made unto 
salvation. Komans x:10. With it is involved and 
conjoined such sorrow for sin, such profound con- 
sciousness of helplessness as a sinner, such recogni- 
tion of God in the Christ, such inaugurated love of 
God with the entire being, and of one's neighbor as 
one's self, — though there is a still higher degree ot 

6 



82 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

it which induces sacrifice of one's temporal interests, 
— even of life itself for the weal of others, — as was 
that of Jesus, if one is able to attain unto such 
altruism^ (John xv:13), that a revolution of desires, 
motives, aims and ends of life ensues. The soul is 
thus born from above, — is renewed, transformed, — 
issues from darkness into light. The profession 
thereafter will be translated into life. The life will 
reveal the creed. 

I. Auguste Comte criticised the Golden Rule as having too 
much regard for self. " Self," he says, is the soul of sin ; self-hood 
is evil. One must forget himself. The right rule is — not to do as 
you would have others do unto you, but to do to others what ab- 
solute good-will requires: to live for others. — O. B. Frotliingham. 

A high morality demands, not that we should treat them as we 
wish them to treat us, but that we should be able to rise above 
our wishes for ourselves, or even theirs for themselves, and recog- 
nize their right to the best treatment of their situation and need, 
whether we should wish for such specific treatment or not. If I 
am selfish and want my greed consulted, shall I therefore gratify 
another's to his injury.? — Oriental Religions. — Johnson. 

Unless we desire happiness for ourselves, we have no standard 
of measurement by which to guide our conduct towards others, 
nothing to give us a clue, as to what others will desire. And more 
than this, as Spencer has shown in his " Data of Ethics," those 
who through neglect of due self-regard have failed to maintain 
bodily well-being, end by becoming a burden, instead of a help to 
others. . . . 

The constant exclusion of our happiness from the idea of what 
is good or right to be done, is a dangerous fallacy, because under 
the guise of transcendent virtue it undermines natural virtue, 
which requires of us only that we should do unto others as we 
would be done by, — that we should love our neighbor as ourselves, 
seeking his good as well as, — not regardless of pur own. — P. F. 
Fitzgerald. — Phil, of Self -Consciousness. 



WHAT SHALL MEN DO TO INHEEIT ETERNAL LIFE. 83 

When men inquire, what they shall do to inherit 
eternal life, their sincerity in asking, their willingness 
to do what may be required, from a right motive, are 
to be tested: they are to test themselves. When a 
Master in Israel came by night, desiring, perhaps 
moved thereto by gracious influence, to get insight 
into the doctrines of this "teacher come from God;" 
the Savior confronted him with utterance imperative 
and curt: Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a 
man be born from above, he cannot see the Kingdom 
of God. John iii:3. The creed of ancestry had 
doubtless, descended to Nicodemus as an heir-loom. 
Perhaps ,unconsciously he had come to trust much 
in the conserving power of heredity. Perhaps he 
had rested his hopes of ultimate salvation on the 
ground of external and literal obedience, motives un- 
considered, not by trust in Him, Who, Moses and 
the Prophets predicted, would come, and as was evi- 
denced to this devout member of the Sanhedrim had 
come, and was before him then and there . face to 
face. Interior, radical revolution of motives, desires 
and purposes, from the idolatry of self ^and of inter- 
ests that exclusively center in self, was not recognized 
as essential to the obtainment of the Heavenly inher- 
itance. There are Nicodemuses in our time, D. D.'s 
and Ph. D.'s, on whom perhaps consecrating hands 
have been laid, — thus buttressed in their hopes, who 
need to be thus unceremoniously and curtly addressed. 
It may be ,they are passing life under the shadows 
of Theological or Missionary Corporations, as Pro- 
fessors or Secretaries, and perhaps well-to-do in the 
Earthlies have thought to secure a lien ex officio 



84 THE CHEIST IN LIFE. 

upon the Heavenlies; or, in centers of social, intel- 
lectual and religious culture, are referring all ques- 
tions in politics, ethics, and religion, to their idola- 
trized self -reason, — unillumined by the Spirit and the 
literal Word, and uncollated with other individual 
reasons, — as the supreme and last arbiter for decision. 
True, the Infinite has not required the repression of 
a finite individual reason in its attempt to apprehend 
the unknown, for the injunction is: Scrutinize! Do 
not servilely, facilely accept the judgments or the 
opinions of others. Thoroughly test them for thy- 
self. Hail light on truth and duty, from whatever 
source, but mistake not darkness for light. No soul 
however enlightened can safely regard its solitary 
dicta as infallible. 

The external conduct of these moral persons, — 
"ethical culturists," as tested by the prohibitions of 
the Decalogue, may be spotless and polished as Parian 
marble and as cold. Long since they abandoned 
confidence in those spiritual revolutions, experiences 
and states, denominated "repentance unto life," "re- 
generation," " conversion," "new birth," "new man," 
"Christ dwelling in the heart," "Christ formed 
within." Jesus, they do not question, was a "teacher 
sent from God," a prophet extraordinary, a divine 
exemplar, a model man, ranking with Sakya Muni, 
Zoroaster, Confucius, and Francis of Assissi. "Ecce 
Homo!" with admiration they exclaim. The self- 
righteousness, self-complacency, self-confidence of 
such need to be summarily cut down by the sweep of 
the Savior's scythe: "Yerily, verily, I say unto you, 
except a man be born from above, he cannot see the 



NEIGHBORS IN JERICHO — AS IN JERUSALEM. 85 

Kingdom of God;" "except ye be converted," — turned 
about, radically changed in purpose, thought and life, 
and "become as little children," — docile, guileless, 
trustful in the Father; "ye shall not enter into the 
Kingdom of Heaven." 

There be others like the " certain lawyei " who de- 
sire to know "what they shall do to inherit eternal 
life." The summary of the "Law," and of "pure and 
undefiled religion " they unhesitatingly admit to be, — 
to love God with all the heart, soul, mind and 
strength; but when enjoined to regard their neigh- 
bors as they do themselves, they dubiously or sinis- 
terly inquire : " Who is my neighbor ? There have 
been many such theologic casuists in our time : the 
class is by no means extinct, who find their neighbors 
only in Asiatic idolaters, and in the cannibals of the 
Seas, not at all in the slaves' or freedmen's huts jutting 
to their own dwellings, — victims of their oppression, 
or in the Chinese huddled in their basements. There 
are some at least of these theoiogues, farther North, 
who can now discern him only among the f reedmen ; 
not among the destitute and the afflicted on their own 
streets, — their employees or servants in their own 
dwellings.^ 

There be many precious young men, not far ex- 
ternally, from the Kingdom, — of pious ancestry per- 

I. It will be a wonderful thing, some day or other, for the 
Christian world to remember, that it went on thinking for two 
thousand years, that neighbors were neighbors at Jerusalem, but 
not at Jericho. — Rushin. 

A philanthropist — a man whose charity increases as the square 
of the distance. — Middleniarch. 



86 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

haps young men of culture secular and religious, 
and some of great wealth; very dutiful to parents, 
very genial in society, humanitarians, " modern edi- 
tions of the Decalogue," having "kept the law" — 
externally — "from their youth up; wedded to "culture 
with a slight flavor of Christianity," "morality 
touched with emotion," who seek to know "what ihey 
shall do to inherit eternal life," but who have not re- 
alized that they are stewards, — only lease-holders, 
not owners in absolute fee of what they possess. 
They need to be summarily told and thus tested: 
" Sell all that you have and give to the poor." Then, 
shall you "have treasure in Heaven." And "come, 
follow Me." 

What shall they do to inherit eternal life? The 
inheritance is conditioned on repentance, on con- 
tinued obedience to and trust in the Reconciling One. 
Salvation cannot be bartered for. There can be no 
traffic in eternal life, though Popes some times have 
thought to make a corner of it. It is not negotiable 
and purchasable as is position, or office, or station, 
or even as a degree ecclesiastic. It is a gracious gift 
to the contrite and to the obedient. Those who seek 
for it, must, repenting of wrong to God and men, — 
turning from it, have such faith in Him Who is the 
Way, the Truth, and the Life, — the compassionate 
God in manifestation, as to appropriate to themselves 
what He has done, — that which was not possible for 
them to do, though they may not fully comprehend 
how the saving work is wrought. Theri He will do 
all that is necessary to be done for them personally, 
and enable them to do what they ought to do. Do? 



SELL AND GIYE. FOLLOW ME. 87 

Repent and turn to God, from Whom hitherto thou 
hast been averted. If thou, O rich young man! en- 
amored of earth, would be saved by doing, basing all 
thy hopes of attaining the Heavenly inheritance on 
commandment keeping, on external obedience, hav- 
ing as thou dost allege "kept" the commandments 
severally, "from thy youth up;" go and convert thy 
material means into money, and distribute wisely to 
the poor, and from a holy motive, because thou 
lovest to do it; because thou recognizest thy stew- 
ardship ; because thou f eelest it is thy duty, and a 
privilege ; because I command thee Who alone can 
save thee, — give thee this eternal life; then "shalt 
thou have treasure in Heaven." Then "come and 
follow Me." Thy God may not require it of thee in the 
end, but thy willingness to do it may be thus tested 
by Him, as was that of Abraham for the sacrifice of 
his son, and, of this "very rich" young man (Matth. 
xix:20, Luke xviii:21) by Jesus. Ah! who does not 
know, that to do all this may be to encounter poverty, 
self-denial, tribulation, persecution, suffering, perhaps 
death, as any or all be required? This is to follow 
Christ. Doing will save none, but if any one desires 
to be saved, he will do whatever he can do, and is 
required of him. 

Work towards thy salvation, O soul I with fear and 
trembling, for God is the Worker-Out of it in you, — 
both to will and to work according to His good will. 
Phil, ii: 12.^ "The whosoever will are the elect, the 
whosoever wont are the non-elect." ^ 

I. See the Greek, also, of I Cor. xii:6, ii. Gal. iii:5. Col. i:29, 
I Thess. ii: 13. 2. Sam'l P Jones. 



88 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

The most that the mass of church members, it is 
feared, are trying to do, is to "keep the ten command- 
ments " — creditable indeed to the extent of the trying 
and the keeping; and with respect to the one of 
the two in which the Savior said was comprised 
the "law and the prophets," — "Love thy neighbor 
as thyself," trying to keep that, so far as is consistent 
with a prime regardf ortheir self-interests. If any one 
doubts this, let him take up the character of each 
church member, put it into a crucible, thoroughly 
test it for the indestructible residuum — the incom- 
bustible asbestos of goodness and love, somewhat as 
the Savior did the " very rich" young man. It is ap- 
prehended, that most of them as they were tested in 
being required to do some thing antagonistic to their 
master passion, their habitual spirit and practice, — 
involving the excision of some right hand of posses- 
sion, or extinction of some right eye of desire, — the 
unconditional surrender of some thing they had here- 
tofore idolized, and the future consecration of the 
same to the holiest of causes, and especially the 
practical demonstration, that they do indeed love 
their neighbor as themselves, — would be seen walking 
away "sorrowful " one by one. 

In those blessed days of anticipation, should they 
come, there will be more, it is believed, of what is de- 
scribed in the following record: And there was one 
heart and one soul in the multitude of believers, and 
not one regarded his possessions as his own (they 
considered themselves merely stewards of what they 

possessed), but had all things common 

Neither were there any that were in want, for such as 



CHRISTIANITY IS THE TRUTH IN LIFE. 89 

were possessors of lands or houses, — selling them vol- 
untarily, and from Christian impulsion, — not from 
constraint or specific requirement, brought the pur- 
chase money thereof, and laid it at the Apostles' feet; 
and distribution was made to every one who had 
need. Acts iv:32, 35. 

It must ever be impressed, that Christianity in 
theory or practice, is not merely a system of truth or 
truths presented to the intellect — to be believed or 
disbelieved indifferently, — topics of speculation, dis- 
cussion, development and application, with no moral 
responsibility involved in the acceptance or rejection, 
as one may believe or disbelieve, discuss and apply 
certain mathematical, geological, astronomical or 
chemical theories; but an inward and outward rule of 
of life, prescribed by the Lord Jesus the Christ, — 
God Himself in manifestation, — wrought and estab- 
lished in the heart by the Spirit through the palin- 
genesia required. The results will be seen in con- 
duct. Men therefore accept or reject it with respon- 
sibility. The understanding may give assent to it, as 
not only true, but may commend its requirements as 
just and reasonable ; but if there is no acceptance or 
recognition in the heart; if there is no exemplification 
in the life ; if he, who assents to it, does not endeavor 
to regulate and harmonize his interior and exterior 
life with it, it will, in him, have no quickening or 
conserving power; — will be as salt without savor; 
rather he will on account of the incongruous rela- 
tion become a skandalon to other souls. Woe to the 
orthodox in creed, who are heterodox in life, — woe 
ever! 



90 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

He, therefore, who would obey God, be Christ's 
disciple, must do as He commanded — take up his 
cross, follow Him, go about doing good. That in- 
volves not only self-denial, but privation, and very 
often, the "tribulation" foretold. In the proceedings of 
the Judgment Day foresketched by Him, He repre- 
sents Himself as refusing to recognize "many," not 
because they were unsound in their theological 
opinions, but because they did not illustrate their 
professions in internal and external conduct, — had 
neglected to minister as they had ability and oppor- 
tunity to the bodily and spiritual necessities of men. 
Jesus took it for granted, that if a man loved God 
with all his soul, mind, heart and strength, he would 
love his human brothers, and that he could not be 
otherwise than humane and philanthropic. 

The evidences, it is repeated and urged, of the pos- 
session of Christianity, are not mainly even in assent 
to a creed, — in stated recitation of its formulas, in 
zeal to propagate what one believes and feels is true 
and pure. Of course out of the abundance of 
one's heart will he speak. If indeed one is a child 
of God, a regenerate person, a Christian believer, he 
cannot refrain from oral or emotional expression of 
the fact; he will manifest it in conduct. But ,emo- 
tions will not save, nor are reliable tests of spiritual 
state. Their inspiration may be out of bodily condi- 
tion, of mood or environment, — of earthly or celestial 
origin. The Christian test, since Apostolic times, has 
been too exclusively, what does one mentally, specu- 
latively believe? what does he think? During revival 
times since, the test has been disproportionally, how 



CHRISTIANITY IN DEEDS AS IN WOBDS. 91 

does one feel? In last days, it will be, what does one 
dOf as expository or illustrative of what he professes 
to believe and feel? How does he live in his family, 
and in presence of his fellow men? What shall one 
do ? Not only what he does in ecclesiastical relations, 
but in his business, on the streets, in his office, in his 
family, in private, when and where there is no eye 
but God's to discern him. Do? — In the shrift of his 
innermost, his subtlest offending, — deflection from 
right, duty, parity! 

If one is a Christian, he will endeavor to think, 
feel, speak and act rightly, day by day, whether he is 
conspicuous in attendance or participation in devo- 
tional meetings or not. Right conduct in the family, 
on the streets, in his office, in commercial transac- 
tions, will be the test of the sincerity and genuineness 
of profession, — of possession. There are direct duties 
to be discharged, and their performance will spring 
out of a Christianized heart. One will of course ,as 
opportunity opens and duty presses, make public but 
not ostentatious manifestation of what he believes 
and feels to be the Truth. It is easy to be zealous, 
fluent, joyful in the conference or the devotional 
meeting, out of the natural, inevitable flow of gift, 
temperament, mood, circumstance, — when one is 
well-to-do, is free from pecuniary embarassment, has 
ample funds available at any moment, — to provide for 
all the physical or intellectual necessities of himself 
and family, and in advance ^for months or years; 
when digestion is good, and all externally goes well 
with him ; but how is it with those whose physical, 
intellectual and spiritual energies have been absorbed 



92 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

during the day, in providing the means o£ subsistence 
for their families, in meeting their pecuniary obliga- 
tions, in keeping the gaunt wolf Want from their 
doors ? 

Cornelius may or may not have been a fervid ex- 
horter. It is probable he was not, for military men 
are more given to deeds than words. So far as re- 
vealed, it was good doing in inseparable junction with 
unostentatious prayers, and probably .more in private 
than in public, — the complement of a well-ordered, 
symmetrically developed life, that went up for a me- 
morial before God. A Christ-like life is a perpetual 
speech and a ceaseless prayer in the presence of men 
for their souls. There are too many mechanical, 
soulless, formal prayers. They do not rise higher than, 
if as high as the petitions of idolaters revolving in the 
cylinders of their prayer-mills. As the trust of the 
believer ripens, so supremely submissive, uncondi- 
tioned will it be in his Divine Father,— so absorbed 
will he be in inward communion with Him, in re- 
quests unutterable, — every hour, that less often will 
he be inclined to rise in the public gathering for the 
utterance of prayer; if outwardly expressed, it will 
be wrung out of his soul by the exigencies of the oc- 
casion, — realized necessities for self and others; will 
therefore be compressed, energic, ejaculatory to God, 
rather than oration to Him, — and for the delectation 
of hearers.^ In realization of earthly sorrows, earthly 
wants, God's Almightiness, man's helplessness, the 
soul is often stricken dumb; if it speak at all, it will 

I. The most eloquent prayer ever addressed to a Boston audi- 
ence. — Bosto7i Editor on a D. DJ's Prayer. 



GIFTS NOK GRACES CONCLUSIVE OF SAINTSHIP. 93 

be in cries, in ejaculations, in interjections, in smitings 
on the breast, in uplifted hands, in sighs and tears. 

It has been said, — and truly .as is thought, by a re- 
cent writer on Prayer, that sometimes, at least, "the 
highest development of faith, no less than its non-ex- 
istence >may conceivably be indicated by a complete 
absence of petitionary prayer." ^ 

However painful to sincere, simple-hearted disciples 
will be the disenchantment, — it is presumed, that 
keen discerners, and ripe in observation are not long 
deluded; it is fact, that gifts in speech or prayer de- 
lusively taken for graces in ecclesiastical life, — fired 
on occasions, apparently, by a live coal from the 
Divine altar, — haloed, seemingly .by light from Heav- 
en, anointed with external and apparently internal 
unction, are not conclusive evidence of saint-likeness, 
or any degree of saint-ship. Often they have been 
conjoined with utter destitution of it. The Devil 
himself has been very unctuous and Scriptural. 
Doubtless .many of the Scribes and Pharisees, who 
crucified the Lord of Glory, and he who went up with 
the Publican to the Temple to pray, flaunting the 
semblances of self-abasement and humility, were em- 
inent saints of their time, — seemed doubtless to the 
lowly, sincere worshippers, humble and very meek. 
Well apprised is the world of what Papal and Epis- 
copal Bishops have done under the cowl of Godliness 
and saint-ship. With what fervor did they preach! 
with what unction did they pray at the Eack or the 
Stake! Saul of Tarsus, in his untempered zeal, haled 
Christian men and women to prison, — so deluded as 

I. John H. Jellett. 



94 THE CHEI8T IN LIFE. 

to believe, he, thereby, did God service. The Holy- 
Fathers of the Spanish Inquisition, "ad majorem 
gloriam Dei" tortured, with devilish ingenuity, and 
burnt myriads of Christian heretics. Jesuits harassed 
and imprisoned, in the Inquisition at Goa, descend- 
ants of primitive believers, because they would not 
conform. Would that it could be said of their Prot- 
estant successors, that they were not culpable in this 
regard! It has been estimated, that fifty millions per- 
ished through the diabolic instrumentalities of the 
Papacy, since its rise. Of the ostentatiously pious 
Philip II of Spain, Motley declared: "If Philip 
possessed a single virtue, it has eluded the conscien- 
tious research of the writer of these pages. If there 
are vices — as possibly there are — from which he was 
exempt, it is because it is not permitted to human 
nature to attain perfection even in evil. . . . He 
said of himself, on his death-bed, *In all my life, I 
have never consciously done wrong to any one. If 
ever I have committed an act of injustice, it was done 
unwittingly, because deceived by circumstances.' He 
told his son to observe closely his father's condition, 
that when he was laid low, he might have a conscience 
void of offense!" 

There have been like professions and manifesta- 
tions of piety in modern ecclesiastics, — crucifiers of 
souls, rather than bodies; for well they know, that 
touching bodies in these times, — Church and State 
dissevered, — the State will touch theirs. 

Come thou instanter, to the realization, then, meek- 
hearted disciple, and spare thyself the torturing pain 
of experience, — though thou should' st be charitable, 



THE SPIRITUAL NOT NECESSARILY CHRISTIAN. 95 

patient, discriminating to the last, — come thou in- 
stantly to it; otherwise what sorrow of heart, if not 
darkness of soul, and eclipse of faith will come to 
thee, when the deceptive spell broken, the delusion 
exposed, thou dost finally awake to the painful reality! 
Heed the Divine test: "By their fruits ye shall 
know them," — not by the foliage of their professions. 
"Fruits!" and what are they? ostentatious display, 
or manifestation of gifts, external graces? Nay 
verily! but acts, deeds, words, demeanor — conscious 
or unconscious; humility, which, while it doth not 
prevent or forbid just estimate of one's gifts and ac- 
quisitions, doth lovingly recognize those of others; 
unselfishness, ends of which are not exclusively self- 
centered; justice, which gives God His due, as well 
as man his; love, which pities the transgressor while it 
abhors his crimes; that ministers, according to ability 
and opportunity, to those in want, — even to the vile, 
the abandoned, enemies of God and men; which in- 
duces self-denial and self-sacrifice, even of life itself, 
if evidently required in God's providence; that depth 
and degree of it, if attainable .which "beareth all 
things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, en- 
dure th all things." 

"The religious sense, viewed as the simple appre- 
hension of a spiritual world, is in itself no preserva- 
tive whatever against moral obliquity. The term 
religion stands for two distinct things. It both stands 
for the ethical thing so-called, ^. e., a proper state of 
religious habits and affections; and also stands for 
the intellectual or metaphysical thing so-called, i, e.> 
the sense of, or belief in the fact of a spiritual and 



96 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

invisible world. Spirituality and invisibility are not 
in themselves ethical, but metaphysical ideas, and the 
sense of a world spiritual is no more an ethical sense 
in itself, than the sight of a world visible is. . . . 
— Supplying a spiritual world over and above this 
visible one, is a most important addition to our idea 
of the Universe, and enlarges our mental prospect; 
but it does not of itself touch our moral nature. . . 
The moral effect of a spiritual world upon us .depends 
entirely upon what we make that world to be, and 
what we make that world to be depends upon our 
own ethical standard and perfections." ^ 

The foreign missionary has been selected by many 
as the best type of Christianity, — for self-abnegation, 
self-sacrifice, disinterestedness, purity and symmetry. 
It is possible, however, that one might exile and iso- 
late himself in spiritual deserts through morbid ambi- 
tion, — restless aspiration for glory, and be deceived, 
and deceiving, with the supposition that he was being 
consumed with a passion for souls. The Apostle 
thought, that such deception in himself, even, was 
possible, when in the climax of specification he de- 
clared: "And if I give my body to be burned, but have 
not love, it profiteth me nothing." Thousands of 
heathen and Papal devotees have illustrated such 
possibility by endurance of privation, suffering and 
death, in their pilgrimages to shrines of idolatry;— 
thereafter , and therefor were canonized as saints. 
Unquestionably many foreign missionaries have fur- 
nished some of the noblest illustrations of what 
Christianity is in precept, and should be in practice. 

I. Mozley. — Cromwell. 



HOME AND FOREIGN MISSIONARIES. 97 

They .nevertheless in common with all classes of be- 
lievers are to be tested, — not exclusively by what 
they are on dress-parade at home, but by what they 
are in private life, in personal intercourse — among the 
heathen; and God alone knows the heart. Such 
tests good men expect, and do not protest against. 
In the Home field, believers are daily and hourly 
thus scrutinized, not only by worldlings, but by their 
fellow believers among whom they are cast. What 
Grace has failed to do in abrading angularities, — 
straightening or repressing crookedness in na- 
ture, is more or less symmetrized and rectified by 
contact and attrition. In the Foreign field, they are 
not so much exposed to scrutiny and criticism, where 
the moral standard is so low, — are subject very little 
to such intellectual or moral abrasion. Unsanctified 
nature has indisputed or undisturbed sway, unless 
purified and sanctified by the Christ within. The 
"Booms" are too far distant for espionage, unless as 
were the system and the practice in Jesuit missions, 
each missionary is set as a spy upon every other, and 
to report thereon and statedly to "Head Quarters." 
The secret history of Foreign missions reveals the 
same imperfections and infirmities, that exist among 
brethren of the same faith in the Home field. 

The days for the most part of missionary peril in 
foreign lands are rapidly passing away, and the ex- 
cessive glamour therefrom disappears with them. 
They . however who will live Godly, in the Home or 
Foreign field, will as ever encounter some kind or 
degree of persecution. In the world, anywhere, they 

7 



98 THE CHBIST IN LIFE. 

will have tribulation. As, said editorially, the New 
York Independent some years since: 

"The majority of the mission stations, occupied by 
Protestant missionaries, are within the temperate zones 
or in climates in which, with proper precaution, healthy 
men and women can labor and keep their strength. 
Hundreds of foreigners, men and women, live in these 
same countries, in the various pursuits of business or 
in the government civil, military, or naval service. 
. . . To carry the Gospel to the heathen, the av- 
erage missionary of to-day gets into a palace-car, and 
rides to a first class ocean steamship, and as a cabin 
passenger braves the dangers of the sea. Often his 
route is through lands of classic story, or the glorious 
wonders of nature and art. Arrived at his destina- 
tion, he has a comfortable house to live in, with fur- 
niture, coal, candles and musquito nets. He is usually 
provided with a good doctor, a fair teacher, plenty of 
nurses and servants. Usually, there is American or 
English society in the same town, city, or neighbor- 
hood. In almost all the Asiatic and African ports 
there are regular mails. If his health fail, he can 
come home. His salary, though small, is sufficient 
for decent support — sometimes for a life, which, if 
not luxurious, is far superior to that which the same 
person in the struggle for fame, place, and bread 
could win at home. If he has archaeological ta-stes, 
he has fascinating opportunities to cultivate them. 
Once in six or seven years he can return home to 
recruit." * 

I. It cannot be denied, that the pecuniary support given to the 
foreign missionary, is more liberal than that which home mission- 



MISSION ECONOMICS. 99 

The truth is doubtless that the best representa- 
tives of Jesus Christ are found among the obscure, 
the untrumpeted at home and abroad, who have been 
disciplined by trial and purified by suffering. Jesus 
so designated, and Peter so emphasized in his first 
epistle. 

Activity in all the departments of Christian labor, 
has amazingly increased during the last fifty years, 
in sympathy with the quickened pace of secular af- 

aries on the frontier, or pastors of average country churches re- 
ceive. . . . Judging from his recollections, and froin -what he 
has since observed, he is of opinion, that he himself lived more 
comfortably, and with a good deal less pinching, on half of his 
missionary salary, than two- thirds of the Baptist pastors in the 
country parishes of New England upon the whole of theirs. 

An intelligent Christian lady after making the tour of China 
and other Eastern lands, is said to have remarked, " I can never 
again say 'poor missionaries ;' let me always say, since I have seen 
them in their homes, 'good missionaries.'" The comfort, the ab- 
solute neatness, the trained servants, the unostentatious elegance 
even, which are found in so many missionary homes abroad (in- 
cluding my own old home in Rangoon, perhaps), would strike the 
great majority of our contributing friends, if they could see them, 
with surprise, if not with a measure of disapproval. — Rev. C. H. 
Carpenter. — Mission Economics. 

[Mr. C. was for many years, a devoted and successful mission- 
ary among the Karens, sent out and sustained by the Am. Baptist 
Missionary Union. He and his wife have recently gone to Japan 
to labor in an individual mission, depending chiefly on faith, that 
they will be sustained by the prayers and material means of the 
friends that God will provide for them. Their trust in Him has 
been signally honored and blest.] 

In the Chicago (Cong.) Advance of Dec. 2, 1886, a Home mis- 
sionary is " tempted to make a personal statement " which " I doubt 



100 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

fairs, in striking contrast with the staid movements 
of Christians previously. Then, there were but few 
Sunday Schools, few night meetings, few benevolent 
societies. While unquestionably, it is healthful that 
Christian enterprise should be thus stimulated, and 
the social element be developed; yet it must not be 
forgotten, that God does not work in His material or 
His Spiritual Kingdom, so far as one can discern, as 
most men do in worldly matters. He is never in a 
hurry, nor are divine influences ordinarily wrought 
thus in souls. " Nothing is more vulgar than haste." ^ 
True, the instant comes when a decisive change, as in 
regeneration, takes place. But who has been able to 
discern the long train of influences preceding such 
result? Some appear to ripen rapidly for Gehenna, 
and others as quickly for Heaven. But there were 

not," he says, " will represent the case of about all our home mission- 
aries." He has the care of three churches, scattered over a territory 
of 500 square miles. He has preached every Sabbath morning, 
and at one of the other places in the afternoon ; for some time 
preached again in the evening; has eighty-four families under his 
care, visiting them with his wife twice a year at least. — The only 
Protestant English-speaking minister on 500 square miles, " It 
requires strong faith and some pluck to do this Avork, especially 
when you have to face a Nebraska blizzard." His family consists 
of six, and he received during the last year $486.10. — One quarter's 
salary due him from the Society on last year; owes much more 
than this; creditors want their money. Last year built a parso- 
nage; gave $50 towards that, now pays $40 rent a year, to pay 
back the loan of the Union. The hope of one of his boys, who 
greatly desires a higher education, must be given up. *' The eco- 
nomic lines must contract a little more. The account must be 
balanced by faith. If comforts decrease, faith must increase." 

I. Emerson. 



INFLUENCE IN A CHBISTIAN HOME. 101 

series of antecedents looking to such consequent. 
Ordinarily, good or bad character is slow in growth, 
as men count slowness. Christian influence is the 
outgrowth of fidelity, purity, consistency, for years. 
So that, it is a question for consideration, whether 
this increased activity in Christian enterprise, the 
multiplication of religious instrumentalities, the nu- 
merous meetings — for children especially — have not 
been attended with superficiality in religious thought, 
shallowness of convictions, with want of discrimina- 
tion and thoroughness in the application of properly 
rigid tests of the alleged change wrought in the soul, 
and of fitness for a public profession of the same, — 
the opposite of which was characteristic of those 
times, when families lived more at home, when chil- 
dren were not so often at protracted night meetings, 
nor were exposed to such questionable public and 
private influences of the religiously inane and indis- 
creet; in a word, when the Family was believed not 
only to be a divine institution, but prior to the church 
in order and value. 

For physiological reasons, both with respect to the 
body generally and to the brain in particular, after 
the excitement of the school or the play-ground, 
children should be more at home of nights. If Chris- 
tian parents are true to their responsibilities, there 
would not be such dependence on external religious 
influences. However valuable these multiplied in- 
strumentalities are to communities generally, and 
they are unquestionably such to many, especially to 
the orphan and the homeless, they can never equal 
those of faithful Christian parents in the family circle 



102 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

supercede, or be substituted for them. Sometimes, 
when parents can gather their children together and 
enter upon intimate converse with them, they are 
withdrawn to the hands of strangers, whose influence 
may be more or less in conflict with parental views of 
truth and duty. When such meetings are made 
auxiliary, subsidiary and subordinate to duties, re- 
sponsibilities and privileges in the Christian family, 
they are well; otherwise they are not well. The 
Divine movements in souls are orderly; — manifested 
in the " still, small voice," rather than in the storm, 
"the earthquake," or the "fire;" — harmonious and co- 
operative, it is believed, with attention to relations in 
life, and with the punctilious discharge of the duties 
arising from them. If children are genuinely moved 
by the Spirit of God to seek the salvation of their 
souls, they will be more likely to find the precious 
boon in the quiet of their parental homes, especially 
if Christian; and in communion with God alone, in 
the solitude of their own chamber, — for the work is 
between them and Him alone. What unhallowed 
hand shall dare to protrude itself between the soul 
and God?^ 

That profession of regeneration, that is coupled 
with neglect of duties springing out of relations in 
the Home, is to be suspected. " God setteth the sol- 
itary in families," for what? It is not, that children 
and even adults lack for preaching, exhortation and 

I. Some ministers, and subalterns trained by them, in their 
" zeal not according to knowledge," have undertaken to destroy 
the influence of Christian parents over their children, w^hen those 
parents would not fall into the line of their winter campaigns. 



THE POTENCY OF THE SEASONABLE WOKD. 103 

prayer on their behalf. It is feared, many have too 
much of them for spiritual effect — for permanent 
influence. 

It is the seasonable word, that is "good" and po- 
tential, not the indiscriminate and superfluous ha- 
rangue. It is not only the word, but the word in 
"season." Seek thou for it, O zealous believer! 
He is the "s^dse, and will prove to be the successful 
winner of souls, who is not only ready with the word, 
but bides patiently, vigilantly, for its junction with 
the opportunity. As astronomers, after the prepara- 
tion of months, — a journey of thousands of miles, and 
the expense of many thousands of dollars, wait vigi- 
lantly at the eye of the telescope for the precise in- 
stant of a planetary conjunction, so must he who 
would be instrumental in the salvation of a sou] bide 
for the auspicious moment, when it is privileged to 
speak to it the word of love. The opportunity of 
placing a heart palpitating with the passion of its 
Master, if only for one point of time — in close con- 
tact with another's, — away from God, is very precious; 
it must be improved; it may be enjoyed no more. 

As many special meetings are conducted, anxious 
persons are led to seek for help in circles and meas- 
ui'es exterior to God, and to rely on them for spiritual 
relief. The truth is not pressed, that the troubled 
soul must come in contact, individually, personally, 
directly with its Maker. The cry must be : "Lord, 
save me, or I perish!" The work of grace in a soul 
cannot be hurried. God will take His own time and 
way to work it, when that soul is brought to the ex- 
tremity of the realization of helplessness. He alone 



104 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

knows, what preceding disciplinary process is neces- 
sary in each particular case, before the Heavenly end 
can be attained. Admitting, that there must be line 
upon line, and precept upon precept, in admonition 
and exhortation ; it is better, that anxious and inquir- 
ing souls should digest and improve what they have 
been recipients of for so many years, than to be en- 
couraged to pend their hopes on more, as means for 
transformation. It is essential as the first step to 
secure the weal of a soul, to knock from under it all 
its false props in reliance on measures and persons 
external, — to bring it without delay to confront its 
Maker; to teach it that in such an exigency, vain is 
the help of man ; that it is alone in Him. 

The day is given for toil, the night for rest, — Spring, 
Summer and Autumn, to the agriculturist, — for seed- 
time, cultivation and harvest; — Winter for compara- 
tive leisure and rest. The human brain cannot en- 
dure protracted tension. It must have the alternation 
of relaxation from occupation. Jesus, as He did all 
other necessities in physiology, recognized this. "Let 
us go to a secluded place," said He to the disciples, 
"and rest awhile." On His human side. He realized 
His individual need for rest, — relaxation from spirit- 
ual strain, and hasted frequently to the solitary 
mountain or the lonely valley, — away from men, to 
sweet silence, where human babble and the roar of 
traffic could not penetrate, — for rest, that boon for 
the wearied one. 

Intellectual energy, spiritual vitality for the Mas- 
ter's work seem to wax and wane inversely with the 
seasons. Combined efforts to move society in social, 



TIMES AND SEASONS SHOULD BE IMPROVED. 105 

political or religious life, are adjusted to the recur- 
rence of these periods — these physical states. 

Favorable times and seasons should be improved; 
but though men are variable and changeable; 
through the seasons as they come and go, God is 
ever the same, yesterday, to-day and forever. With 
Him there is no parallax, neither shadow of turning. 
He will bless in Summer as in Winter, if men will 
seek Him. Christianity is a work for three hundred 
and sixty-five days, as well as for fifty-two. 

There are indeed periods when men are sunk in 
spiritual apathy, and the churches — deadened in 
worldliness have little or no spiritual vitality. Ne- 
cessity is laid upon some to take God's Trump, and 
to attempt to rouse them. He may require for the 
work such special instrumentalities and measures. 
These men, in all ages, by their peculiar gifts, and by 
the spiritual necessities of their times, have been 
summoned in Providence to blow an alarm, and to 
lead to spiritual assault upon powers of darkness — 
the world, the flesh and the Devil; to cry with John, 
and in the name of their Master: "Eepent! Repent!" 
to "turn men's ears into eyes," that they may see them- 
selves on the brink of perdition as did Whitefield; to 
press them by the inexorable logic of conscience, 
reason and revelation, backed by those "two shooters 
of keen, gray, individualizing eyes," and by leveled 
finger, to flee from the Wrath To Come, as did Fin- 
ney; to exclaim with Nettleton, "Lost! Losi! Lost!" 
with thrilling, varied tones and inflections ; to impress 
by earnestness and sincerity ,the necessity of believ- 
ing in the Lord Jesus Christ, if hearers would be 



106 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

saved, as does Moody; to cry to Christendom, and 
against Devildom, in alternation of brilliant denunci- 
ation and pathos, of sarcasm, geniality and humor, to 
quit their meanness, and to keep the ten command- 
ments, as doth Jones. 

God summons such, and will ever, as He did of 
old. Hear, O Christian Israel! and infatuated chil- 
dren of the world! Listen to these mighty and im- 
pressive summons as they come booming over the 
Past, — indeed < directly from God Himself, for they 
can ever be heard, if men will apply the spiritual 
sense of hearing to the Telephone of their consciences, 
— of the voice of God through His Spirit, and in His 
Word: — Eepent! Believe! Escape for thy life! 
There's but a step 'twixt thee and death! 

The distribution of one's abundance to the needy, 
and to evangelic enterprises, has been and will 
always be a positive duty of believers. When cheer- 
fully made, and from Christian impulsion, it is one 
of the best tests of genuine belief and trust in Him, 
Who gave His life for the life of men; and since a 
voluntary offering of anything cherished evinces the 
sincerity of the offerer. But with respect to the dis- 
proportionate attention given to the raising of money 
by some, for ambitious purposes inside and outside of 
their sect, as demonstrative, illustrative and conclusive 
of ecclesiastical efficiency and piety; this criticism 
must be made. It would conduce more effectually to 
the edification of humanity, if these sects would be 
more careful in testing the Christian professions of 
applicants for admission to their fold, and then, when 



MONEY-GIVING NOT THE WHOLE OF CONDUCT. 107 

they are in, to watcli over them, to educate, develop, 
train them — especially novitiates, for efficiency in 
the Kingdom, not to be sectarians, but disciples, fol- 
lowers of the Master; to faithfully reprove them 
when they falter or fall from their high estate; and 
to proceed unhesitatingly, in the exhaustion of Chris- 
tian patience, to the act of final excision, when they 
prove to be utterly incorrigible, — unworthy of the 
Christian name, and therefore of Christian fellow- 
ship. What the sects need most is to furnish the 
best illustrations possible of Christianity in every 
sphere of life, in the church, in the family, in busi- 
ness. Money is needed for ecclesiastical, sectarian 
advancement, — for evangelic purposes; but living 
exemplifications of all the Christian graces much 
more, of which money-giving is only one. Not ar- 
tistically constructed, elaborately chased and embel- 
lished Lamp-Stands of Gold, will illuminate the dark- 
ness of the world, but the Electric Light of Truth, 
flaming out of them. If Grace is in the soul, money 
will come fast enough, as objects commend them- 
selves to it. It will surely come as the life is hid 
with Christ in God. 

While much benevolence, necessarily, finds duct 
into the great reservoir of Christian enterprise and 
charity, to be distributed by them through ramified 
channels to Want, — to spiritual destitution among 
the heathen, and the unevangelized in Christendom, 
and that doubtless .wisely and economically in most 
instances; still it is believed, that generally the ne- 
cessities of the needy in one's own circle of private 
search and inquiry can be met with much more effi- 



108 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

ciency, than through the paid or unpaid services of 
almoners or agents, and with richer blessing both to 
giver and recipient when they come in contact; with 
saving of the percentage of expense. Many years 
since, there was a "Charity Ball" in Chicago, at 
which men and women dressed themselves fantasti- 
cally, and danced until the small hours of night. 
Expenses greatly exceeded income, and Charity v/as 
left seriously in debt. 

The prescription of the Master comes in to regu- 
late and test. Take heed .that ye do not your alms 
before men to be seen of them, else ye have no re- 
ward of your Father Who is in Heaven. But when 
thou doest alms, do not trumpet it before you, as the 
hypocrites do, etc. . , . Let not thy left hand 
know what thy right hand doeth : that thine alms may 
be in secret, and thy Father Who seeth in secret, 
shall recompense thee openly. Matth. vi : 1-5. But 
then, good deeds should be known. The light of 
them should not be concealed. Sometimes ,it becomes 
necessary, that the world should be apprised of the 
benevolent act, for the sake of the holy motive and 
the exemplary influence. And here comes in again, 
the permit, the authorization, indeed the positive re- 
quirement of the Great Teacher: So let your light 
shine before men, that they may see your good works, 
and glorify your Father Who is in Heaven. Matth. 
v:16. 

It must be hinted, in this connection, that the 
means and methods of money-raising, oft-times 
employed are questionable, degrade objects, and 
are sometimes disingenuous. The Master and His 



DUTY AND MOTIVE IN GIVING. 109 

Apostolic servants, when they required money for 
Christian enterprises, appealed directly to the philan- 
thropic spirit, and to the Christian obligation, — not 
through the appetite for luxuries or delicacies; nor 
would they, it is believed, have tolerated without re- 
buke the prevalent strife and vain-glory, — to be a 
Banner-church, or Banner-Sunday school or class for 
the amounts given, — the end of which, the prize 
sought, would be an emblazoned standard, or an en- 
graved certificate. Cheap and vapid! Totally un- 
worthy of those engaged in such ethereal work! 
Certain it is, that the giving of money thus educed, 
will not develop and intensify the benevolent spirit 
in the giver, which was one of the designs of the 
Master, in the injunction to "Give." "In Christ's 
day, men gave themselves, not a guinea, when an ap- 
peal was made." ^ 

Pulpit castigation of members of churches who do 
not give as liberally, as is deemed they should — to 
varied and multiplied objects .presented on Lord's 
Day, indicates a low degree of Christian refinement 
and delicacy, and a lack of appreciation of the 
" equality " which the Apostle urged. 

The measure of the duty of money-giving should 
be left as the Master left it, to the individual sense 
of duty. Giving of money there must be, and should 
be. But it must come from voluntary, cheerful 
givers. Giving the same from any other impulsion 
than Christian, will not, it is believed, be twice 
blessed — on him who gives, and him or it receiving. 

I. Ecce Deus. 



110 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

The silver and the gold, the cattle on a thousand hills 
are God's, and He can save this world without a dol- 
lar from His children. 

The circumstances of the middle and lower classes, 
their duties and obligations to those dependent on 
them, are not properly considered by the whip- 
pers-in. 

If three-fourths of the " three-fourths " of life — al- 
lotted to "conduct" by the Essayist, (the remaining 
one-fourth reserved for lip-service ) consist in money- 
giving; then there remain only three-sixteenths for 
every other kind of "conduct," to complete the sym- 
metry of Christian life. 

As most evangelical churches in cities are com- 
posed, the average income of the majority of the 
heads of the families therein .does not amount to over 
five or six hundred dollars per annum. They toil or 
are given to their vocations, on long hours for six days 
of the seven, with rarely a vacation, or other inter- 
mission of labor. If they are sick, their income 
ceases, and they must pay their medical bills in full. 
No annual or occasional donations come to them — no 
gold watches, pianos, seal-skin cloaks, marriage fees, 
passes on rail roads, free admission to scientific or 
literary entertainment; and they are never sent to 
Europe with a generous outfit, for rest and recrea- 
tion, — with no intermission of salary. 

If their position and income are regular and per- 
manent, — reckoning the same as interest at only five 
per cent, per annum; the principal or the capital in 
their business or profession may be said to be woriii 
from $10,000 to $12,000. 



BIGHT OR WRONG CONDUCT. Ill 

If a Pastor receives $10,000 per annum for regular 
salary alone, the principal or capital of his profession 
may be said to be worth, at the same rate, $200,000; 
if he receives $5,000, or $2,500, it may be said to be 
respectively worth $100,000, or $50,000. 

"Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever 
ye do, do all to the glory of God. I Cor. x:31. This 
must be the external guide for all those who fear 
God, and who would follow His Son. A Christian 
surely cannot engage in any business, participate in 
any amusement, go anywhere, in which and where, 
he has reason to believe, he could not receive the ap- 
proval of his Master. He ate with publicans and 
sinners. He permitted the fallen to approach Him, — 
in fact, sought them, that they might receive good 
from the contact, and that He might lift them up to 
His Divine level. To Him the disciple standeth or 
falleth. Each one must decide and answer for him- 
self, — scrutinizing his inclinations and prejudices, 
lest they sway or warp his Christian judgment; — be 
willing to correct that interested decision by the dis- 
interested one of his brethren, unless an enlightened 
conscience forbids. 

There must be some distinction between the lawful 
and the unlawful occupation of time, — a line drawn 
somewhere between the lawful and the unlawful in 
practice. This is one of the great questions, that 
presses itself upon the attention of Christians to-day: 
" What do ye more than others ? " Do not even the 
tax-gatherers, the wealth- and the amusement-seekers, 
the same? This is the challenge of the world to 



112 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

church members. They must meet it, or be trampled 
under the hoof of the sneer. Better were dynamite 
put under each of the church edifices, and they blown 
into flinders; better were the churches themselves 
torn asunder, resolved to their individual elements, 
if they cannot respond satisfactorily to the sarcastic 
inquiry. 

Still it is evident the Creator never designed, that 
the social tendency, the desire to realize and to see 
realized the Ideals of a serious or humorous charac- 
ter should be repressed; only that they be sanctified 
and applied for a holy use. One temperament must 
not prescribe regimen or relaxation for another. It 
is believed, our Father would have every nature de- 
veloped to the utmost, and refined to the highest de- 
gree. Each class of mind and temperament must 
have aliment, and contribute its portion to the weal 
of every other. 

All men must have change of occupation, relaxa- 
tion and rest. To the pure all things are pure; but 
to them that are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is 
pure, but both their mind and conscience are defiled. 
Titus i : 15. The Ideals of Truth, Beauty, G oodness 
and Love are the Creations of God in the soul. "Art 
is imitation of God." ^ Man, originally, was an Ideal 
of God. One has it in heroic enterprise; another in 
painting, sculpture, architecture, oratory, poetry or 
the drama. But the Christian ought not to do or say 
anything, — go to any place, in which and where, he 

I. Goethe. 



RIGHT INDULGENCE IN AMUSEMENTS. 113 

will not have " a conscience void of offense toward 
God and toward men." There is so much positive 
good needed to be done, — so few, and so short a time 
to do it, that not many earnest workers in the Harvest 
Field deem it justifiable to suspend or intermit their 
labors of love for the gratification of tastes, or for 
indulgence in amusements. Those who can do so 
conscientiously are not to be censured by their 
brethren. To their Master vthey stand or fall. But 
the Devil has pressed so many of these "amusements" 
into his service ;and defiled them ; the circumstances 
and the associations of some of them are so vile, that 
they cannot be handled or participated in without 
bodily or spiritual harm. Example is potent with 
the young, the inexperienced, the frail, the combust- 
ible in appetite or passion. The followers of Jesus 
Christ are not permitted, in physical or intellectual 
indulgence, to become skandala to the weak, or per- 
nicious examples to the young. And it is earnestly 
inquired, whether there is not enough of the tragic 
enacted in the serious realities of this life; whether 
if it please, there is not enough of the comic for 
amusement in ordinary experience and observation — 
to provoke mirth, without resort — for the representa- 
tion of the actual or of the imaginary, the unreal and 
the impossible, to the stage, the masquerade, or the 
circus. Jesus .in discourse for the highest purposes, 
and with serious, earnest intent, seized upon analogies 
in nature, — the beautiful, the picturesque, the useful, 
— flowers, trees, harvest fields and light, — the real 
or the possible in history; oft that which was tragical^ 

8 



114 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

indeed common incidents, to illustrate and to enforce 
truth, duty. He never trifled in intercourse, though 
He was genial. Life in His vision was too serious 
for trivial, effervescent, evanescent indulgence. The 
future was so momentous, Heaven so glorious, Ge- 
henna so black, hopeless, remediless, time so short, — 
He could not descend and grovel. Souls in conflict 
with powers of darkness — striving to drag them down, 
angels, spirits of the just beseeching, entreating, was 
tragedy enough. He revealed no comedies in Para- 
dise or Gehenna. 

Though disciples could not, if expedient, rise to 
the sublimity and the purity of His ideal and real, 
they may find ample scope for the development of 
the Imagination, the satisfaction of the grave thought, 
the lawful emotion, in the sublime and beautiful in 
nature, or in current life. Pantomime or Histrion- 
ism, unless they elevate the mind and purify the 
heart, must be deleterious. There are many attitudes, 
bodily postures, and mental exercises, not conducive 
to purity, which are not once to be named among be- 
lievers, — "filthiness" in act, word or innuendo, "fool- 
ish talking," "jesting." Even those enacted fictions, 
which are intended to illustrate the heroic, the sad, 
and the pathetic in human history, deaden in time 
the sensibilities, by the repetition of emotions which 
are not put to use, developed, disciplined, refined, in 
practical doing. 

Why is it, is a topic of constant inquiry, that the 
presentation of the Gospel, enforced by the practice 
q£ individuals and churches, is not attended with 



WHY, PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY SLOW? 115 

greater demonstration of power in the conversion of 
men? Gifts as great and varied, — better endowed 
and symmetrized, are as abundant as they have been 
in any period of the Christian era, and the Spirit of 
God has the same potency. The general reply, — that 
its recipients and its advocates are not as sincere, 
earnest and self -forgetting, is doubtless quite true. 
But this does not account altogether for the deficiency 
in blessed results. True, also, there have been mar- 
vellous effusions of the Spirit in the conversion of 
multitudes at periods since. But, Christianity has 
not been able to maintain its ratio of genuinely trans- 
formed persons to the populations, even in Christen- 
dom, much less in heathenized lands. 

Some scholarly and Christian thinkers attribute the 
comparatively meagre results of the regular and 
special efforts, to bring the mass of active, thoughtful 
and cultivated persons in all professions, into the 
Kingdom, to the inability of the ministry to meet and 
satisfy their necessities and desires, — intellectual and 
spiritual ; and especially to cope with technical scien» 
tists and philosophers, who assume to lead mankind 
in discovery, research and thought, — not merely from 
the lack of adequate mental calibre, but by the want 
of adequate equipment, philosophic and scientific; 
that the tide of worldliness and skepticism, in which 
society, and to some extent, the Christian churches 
are drifting, can only be stayed by the interception 
and display of more logic and more erudition from 
the Pulpit. Leviathan cannot be thus tamed. The 
energies of the ministry, it is believed, would be mis- 
applied, if not frittered in such endeavor. All such 



116 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

attainments are unquestionably desirable and condu- 
cive to efficiency with certain classes, but very few, 
relatively, out of the masses. Logic, scientific or 
ethical culture can never reconstruct, regenerate 
souls. The gifts of the great Apostle, enriched with 
all the culture of this or any age, could not succeed 
in spiritually reconstructing skeptics and agnostics — 
as they did not in Athens and Eome. The Spirit 
working through them could; but alas! Science, — 
falsely so-termed, atheistic in its exegesis of the 
Scripture of God — engraven on the material, or inter- 
woven in the immaterial Universe, interposes itself 
as barrier to the gracious entrance into the soul of 
the true light. Let one angular bastion of speculative 
unbelief be carried by the Christian assailant, and 
another is soon thrust out 

F. W. Newman, in his book, "The Soul; Its Sor- 
rows and Its Aspirations," has some thoughtful utter- 
ances on this subject, first published some 30 years 
since, the introduction of which, on account of their 
truthfulness and pertinency, with some elimination 
and condensation, cannot be forborne. True, the sit- 
uation has changed much for the better since he 
wrote. But it is still appalling. 

"Over the old regions of India and Arabia, Chris- 
tianity has evidently but little power; and what is 
most startling of all, its prospects in Europe itself 
are externally darker than ever. In Spain, Italy, 
France and Germany, it is hard to say, that much 
belief of formal Christianity remains among the more 
educated part of the community, or to guess how deep 
a gross and fearful unbelief has penetrated among 



WHAT IS GROUND FOR CERTITUDE. 117 

the lowest population of the towns. As for England 
and Scotland, it is notorious, that a horrid heathenism 
has taken firm root in our town population also, that 
millions have cast off all reverence for any of the 
claims of authoritative religion. 

"All Christian apostles and missionaries, like the 
Hebrew prophets, have always refuted Paganism by 
direct attacks on its immoral and unspiritual doc- 
trines; and have appealed to the consciences of 
heathens as competent to decide in the controversy. 
. . . External teaching may be a training of our 
moral and spiritual senses, but affords no ground for 
certitude. Our certainty in divine truth cannot be 
more certain, than the veracity of our inward organs 
of discernment.^ . ^ . The demands made on men's 
faith are indeed far greater than ever the Apostles 
made ; for the Apostles did not take a Bible in their 
hands, and say to the heathen : * Here is an infallible 
Book: to believe, that every word of this is dictated 
by God, is the beginning of Christianity; receive 
this, and you shall be saved.' . * . The war is 
carried away from the region of the conscience and of 
the soul, into that of verbal and other criticism; and 
who can expect spiritual conversion from that? . , 
To recognize the authority and headship of Jesus as 
Messiah was all that they expected of a convert. . 
. . Paul felt himself to be entirely independent o£ 
external evidence, when he preached for three years 
without caring to meet the Apostles, whose senses 
could give the best external witness to the resurrec- 
tion of Jesus. . . . He .many years after .delib- 

I. See " Light of Life," pages 225-226. 



118 THF CHRIST IN LIFE. 

erately boasted, that his gospel and his apostleship 
came direct from God. . . . The soul is often as 
active and susceptible in the poorest and most illiter- 
ate, as in the wise and great. . . . Concerning 
our modern Evidences, the poor and the illiterate 
cannot possibly judge, and the preacher cannot preach 
unless he is learned: so entirely has the Gospel 
shifted away from its primitive basis. 

"A minister in modern days is expected to excel 
others in what are called Theological accomplish- 
ments. Theology, one might have thought, was the 
science of God; but no: it is the science of Biblical 
Interpretation and Historical Criticism. A person 
eminent in these becomes a Doctor of Divinity. And 
yet, there are topics in which a man might obtain 
high ecclesiastical renown, though his conscience were 
seared and his soul utterly paralyzed; . . . the 
knowledge is simply secular. . . . Christianity 
has been turned into a literature, and, therefore, her 
teachers necessarily become a literary profession. 
. . In the individual, as in human history, reli- 
gion must be a life, long before it can approximate to 
the character of a science; and a knowledge of human 
nature in general seems to be far more valuable to a 
religious teacher, than any special set of facts. In- 
deed, much that is currently called Theology, appears 
to me, suited only to bring barrenness, degeneracy 
and contempt upon religion. 

"It is absolutely impossible, to recover the tens of 
thousands who have learned to scorn Christian faith, 
by arguments of erudition and criticism. Unless the 
appeal can be made directly to the conscience and the 



RELIGION MUST BE SPIRITUAL. 119 

sou], faith in Christianity, once lost by the vulgar, is 
lost forever. 

" If we continue to do as we are doing, . . the 
present course of affairs must go steadily forward, 
but with accelerated velocity; in proportion to the 
increase of mental sharpness, a spiritual destitution, 
a real black infidelity will spread among the millions. 
. . . Why should men load themselves with the 
unendurable burden called Christian Evidences? — a 
mass of investigation, which if it is to be calmly, 
thoroughly judged, requires some ten years' persever- 
ing study from a cultivated intellect in its prime. . 
. . Beligion can never resume her pristine vigor, 
■until she becomes purely spiritual, and as in apos- 
tolic days ^appeals only to the soul; and the real 
problem for all who wish to save cultivated Europe 
from Pantheism, selfishness and sensuality, . . . 
is to extract and preserve the heavenly spirit of 
Christianity, while neglecting its earthly husk. . . 

" The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink, nor 
sermons and Sabbaths, nor history and exegesis, nor 
a belief in the infallibility of any book, nor in the 
supernatural memory of any man; but it is, as Paul 
says, righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy 
Spirit: " 

How can a large multitude of absentees from Di- 
vine service in cities be induced to regularly attend 
upon it in the Protestant houses for such purpose, is 
a question that is now occupying the thought of active 
believers. 

First, it might be said, that many are so wearied in 



120 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

body and soul on Saturday night, by their six days' 
toil, and by the burdens of necessity and sorrow they 
have staggered under for the week, they are physi- 
cally unable, and spiritually indisposed to leave their 
homes for such purpose. They need rest, and must 
have it, ere they take up the wearisome, sometimes 
sorrowful march again. They have their Bibles, and 
they can have uninterrupted communion with their 
God, if they are so inclined, or are driven to seek for 
it in the quiet of their own closets. To them, their 
own homes, under such circumstances, are the best 
temples for Divine service. 

"When reproached with not going to meeting, 
Garrison remarked, that he sometimes preached to 
himself. . . . Olmsted, of the Sanitary Commis- 
sion, when asked why he absented himself from 
church, replied: ^Because going to meeting hurts my 
religious feelings.^ " ^ 

Some of the shandala in the way are found in the 
indifferent practice of the church members them- 
selves, — the vforldliness, if not the ungodliness, of 
many of their number. They as well as worldlings, 
are tested by the fruits they bear. Beligious sensi- 
bilities are disturbed in a House where all are on a 
common level before God, by the sight of some occu- 
pying chief seats, whose lives, in public or private, 
do not comport well with their professions. The 
mothers, wives, sisters and daughters of the poverty- 
stricken, in their comparatively shabby habiliments, 
are not comforted on their entrance by the sight 
and sound of rustling silks, and the flutter of gorgeous 

I. Lectures at Concord. 



BARRIERS TO THE RECEPTION OF THE GOSPEL. 121 

feathers and ribbons upon the persons of the sister- 
hood, who evidence by such attire, that they are first 
the votaries of fashion . before they are devotees to 
God. Such emotions, it may be said, evince pride, 
envy, lack of self-respect which should be overcome. 
Perhaps such is the fact. Doubtless they should be 
suppressed. The children of God should rise to such 
sublimities as Paul attained, when he declared it 
was a very small thing, that he should be judged 
of man's judgment. All believers have not such 
strength of faith. Seek the experience, friend. Ex- 
change positions with thy brother or sister. The 
point is, whether such facts are not skandala that 
should be removed, and whether if not removed, they 
do not become barriers, not only to the church-going 
of the classes specified, but to their cordial reception 
of the Truth presented, and of the hallowed influences 
pervading Divine worship, when they do attend. 
Then again the form of public service may be too 
inflexible to be attractive, — therefore not fully profit- 
able to the persons specified; oi the official ministra- 
tion in preaching, prayer or praise, may not be adapt- 
ed to, or adequate for the purpose. First-class pulpit 
talent is exceedingly rare, even when it is conjoined 
with culture and the giaces of Christianity. The 
greatest task ever laid upon the intellect is each 
week to bring forth from the treasury of Grace, 
" things new and old," for the quickening and edifi- 
cation of needy, hungry souls. There may be too 
much formal, systematic preaching in these en- 
lightened, stirring days, — not enough of spontaneous, 
but previously well digested and adapted discourse. 



122 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

And the various gifts and graces of the churches 
should be summoned to public use, even in the pul- 
pit, for the spiritual profit of the largest number. 

Moody's individual mission, and his mission plans, 
will reach a large multitude of non-church-goers 
among the middle and lower classes, — the vicious, 
the abandoned, the poor, the homeless, the unthink- 
ing, the uncultured, the roving, the unsettled, those 
without families, in the great cities and towns of 
English-speaking Christendom. This is one of the 
grandest special enterprises undertaken since the 
days of the Apostles. In no age of the world .has it 
been so effectually and abundantly demonstrated, that 
the Gospel can take the most vicious and degraded, 
and lift them up to the Christian level. The cures 
wrought in bodies as well souls have been wonderful, 
miracles of Grace. Many of the rescued have be- 
come very earnest and effective laborers, in Gospel 
service. 

In his annual conferences at Northfield, Mass., he 
stimulates evangelists and students for the ministry — 
to a closer familiarity with the English Bible, and to 
greater zeal in revival work. He has also laid the 
foundation for the education of devoted young men 
and women to Gospel service hereafter. He is un- 
dertaking to organize corps of laborers in our large 
cities, and to establish training schools for such com- 
prehensive purpose.. 

Eew have been able to so simplify the Gospel, by 
statement, illustration and manner of presentation, — 
so comminute it, and thus bring it to the apprehen- 
sion of the feeblest and the least cultured mind, as 



SINGING THE GOSPEL. 123 

Mr. Moody. His sincerity, directness, intense ear- 
nestness in delivery, absence of self-consciousness, 
complete absorption in his theme, make him a flame 
of fire. His world-wide acquaintance with the classes 
specified, in all conditions; his training in constant 
extemporaneous speaking ; his wonderful famil- 
iarity with, and command of the old English version of 
the Scriptures; his profound Christian experience, 
have furnished him with apparently an inexhaustible 
fund of materials for discourse. 

Though not possessing gift of musical expression 
himself; under his auspices, it has been developed ex- 
traordinarily in the children of God, and under its 
inspiration and stimulus, they are "Marching On, 
Marching On," to the possession of the spiritual 
Canaan. New stars have appeared on the musical 
firmament, very clear and sweet in their shining, 

Forever singing, as they shine, — 
The Hand that made us is Divine. 

A world, not small, of musical literature has been 
created. The hymns are not invariably poetic gems, 
nor their teaching ever Scriptural and sound. But 
they all have their uses, even the jangle of "Tangle- 
foot Alley." 

But the numbers reached, and that will be reached, 
through these various instrumentalities, are and will 
be, but a small portion of the great bulk of humanity, 
in English-speaking communities. The mass will 
continue to be preoccupied, as it has always been, 
with the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of 
riches, and the lust of other things; with the struggle 



124 THE CHBIST IN LIFE. 

for material existence and comfort, even. Most of 
them can't or wont take time to attend such services, 
inuch less to give them due thought. Then the for- 
eign element in this American and English multitude 
cannot be reached at all. If reached, it must be 
through gifted proficients in its various tongues. 

Evangelists in or outside of churches ,cannot sat- 
isfy . continuously ,the intellectual necessities and de- 
mands of the thoughtful, — the solid portions of such 
communities. They have their limitations as have 
the stated ministry, — the pastors of the churches. 

The prime and pressing want in Great Britain and 
the United States for evangelic purposes, is not so 
much, more meeting houses, and a larger number of 
the unsaved in them every Lord's Day, — though such 
attendance is desirable and conducive to the highest 
good of all concerned; but consecrated dwellings of 
families, where the occupants will daily and hourly 
serve God, through the Godliness of their speech and 
conduct. If realized there, it probably will be real- 
ized on the streets, in secular vocations, in personal 
contact with individual souls. 

There are comparatively few in such Christian 
communities, in whose ears the Gospel has not con- 
tinuously sounded from childhood. — 

They have been sermonized to repletion and insen- 
sibility. The Truth may lose its effectiveness upon 
hearers by excessive iteration, and become the savor 
of death unto death to the Gospel-hardened thereby. 

"The drunkards of Ephraim mocked Isaiah's reit- 
erated warnings and expostulations, by comparing 
him to a teacher of children, with his everlasting 



DAILY LABORERS NEEDED. 125 

tsaV'la-tsaVf tsav-la-isav, kav-la-kav, kav-la-kav. 
Isaiah xxviii:10." 

The Gospel must be taken to men and women indi- 
vidually, and into families. 

There must be a larger number of every-day Chris- 
tian laborers, while engaged in their secular vocations, 
— untitled and unordained, save through faculty sanc- 
tified by Divine Grace. 

God, not they themselves, must call them to any 
specific work. 

They must prove their calling; then their brethren 
and hearers will approve it, and thus ordain them. 

They must not interview any, nor enter any house 
for religious converse, unless divinely moved thereto, 
— testing the impulse whether it be from God or self. 

God will do His work, if they will confine them- 
selves to theirs. 

For reaching, and that effectually every class, — 
every intellectual, emotional, spiritual, educational 
grade, — in every representative condition and en- 
vironment, the presentation of the Gospel must be 
adapted correspondingly. The Christ is the only safe 
model, and Paul the most effective disciple in evan- 
gelic work. Both recognized every diversity of 
gift and culture in speech, literature and action. They 
had a word of recognition, approval and commenda- 
tion for the humblest and most unobtrusive, as well 
as for the mightiest and the self-reliant in Christian 
labor. By no means did they disparage the use of 
reason or culture, in scrutiny for the apprehension of 
the Truth, — Truth literally revealed, latent or involved 
in the Scripture — God-breathed. Scrutinize the Scrip- 



126 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

tures/ is the homily, if not the injunction. Scrutiny, 
of course, involves analytic processes and conclusions 
of the critical faculties. I Pet. iii:15, John x: 37, 38, 
Acts xxiv:25, Acts xvii'2, John v 39-47 Luke xii: 57, 
Isaiah i:18. 

Here someone may exclaim: ** Have faith. 'Tis 
better than sight." Blessed are those who, not hav- 
ing seen, have believed. John xx: 29. But such had 
spiritual assurance in their souls, equivalent to, and 
more convincing than outward vision. But all have 
not such faith in natural constitution, or through 
gracious endowment. II Thess. iii:2. They must 
be taken to conviction through the forces of knowl- 
edge and reason. Then they will ecstatically exclaim : 
"My Lord! and my God! " Once thoroughly rooted 
and grounded in the Truth, they will rarely be 
wrenched from their position.^ 

The souls of philosophers, scientists, and the mem- 
bers of all the learned professions, though they are 
comparatively a small number, are precious, as well 

1. Reason is, indeed, the only faculty we have wherewith to 
judge concerning anything, even religion itself. — Bishop Butler. 

2. Emerson declared, that " the religion which is to guide 

, . the present and coming ages, whatever else it be, must be 
intellectual. The scientific mind must have a faith which is 
science. , . . There will be a new church, founded on moral 
science, at first, cold and naked, a babe in a manger again, the al- 
gebra and mathematics of ethical law, the church of men to come ; 
. . . it will have heaven and earth for its beams and rafters; 
science for symbol and illustration." — Meynoirs by Holmes. 

Doubtless, the manifestation of Christianity in the future will 
swing much in the direction Emerson indicates, as the race be- 
comes more enlightened, and is swayed more by the higher ele- 



THE GOSPEL FOR ALL CLASSES. 127 

as those of the vicious and depraved, God's poor and 
the Devil's poor and rich. They need the Gospel, 
and it must be preached to them after the manner of 
Paul at Athens. 

There are very many who cannot be pressed into 
the Kingdom through their emotions exclusively, or 
by blind acceptance of Scripture isolated from its 
relations, — who cannot take everything averred in 
the English version of the Old and New Testaments 
on trust, without intelligent and lawful scrutiny; — 
whether they are veritably the words of God orally 
uttered, or communicated to others through His 
Spirit; or whether there has not been some human 
interpolation, some corruption in the text, — inevitable 
through transcription, translation or transmission, for 
so many centuries; whether or not there is a human 
as well as a divine element in them; whether some 
portions are not purely historical, — exposed to errors 
in facts and figures as are ordinary histories; and 
whether they are not, likewise, to be subjected, as to 
authenticity and accuracy, to the same tests; whether 
some injunctions are intended chiefly, if not alto- 
gether, for local application, and not for universal; 
whether truth, thought, emotion crystallized through 
the medium of the Imagination should not be inter- 
preted as symbols, and not as literal statements, etc. 

If the millions will be reached individually by the 

merits of being. But it will never cease to be dominantly the 
heart religion. The earth is strewed with the wrecks of purely 
intellectual religion. " With the heart man believeth unto right- 
eousness." The heart and intellect are jn inseparable junction in 
the act pf Christian faith. 



128 THE CHEIST IN LIFE. 

Gospel, they will be, not through a few culled laborers 
from the body of believers, but through a host, who 
taking life and health in hand, will go " discipling all 
the nations," as their Master enjoined ;^as mailed 
legions have gone repeatedly .to military conquest at 
the summons of theii' Chief; — or even as enterprising 
men, singly or corporately, have gone to grasp the 
treasures of earth. 

For world-wide evangelization, there must be as 
various human instrumentalities as are the classes of 
mind, culture, social position, and professional vocation. 

But when one considers the terrific enginery of the 
world, the flesh and the Devil; — the barricades of in- 
terest, secular absorption, passion, ignorance and 
degradation, — behind which souls are entrenched from 
effectual approach and contact; the mesh of inequal- 
ity, injustice and corruption, in which Society and the 
State, even in European Christendom, are interwoven, 
and from which, to human sight, they cannot be dis- 
entangled without disintegration; the prospect is de- 
spairful. "Who is sufficient for these things?" God 
alone. If He providentially does not revolutionize 
and reconstruct, anarchy must sooner or later ensue 
in the other hemisphere, — when crushed peoples come 
to apprehension of their rights, and knowing them, 
dare maintain. There will be uprisings, not exodi of 
outraged masses who will take their enfranchisement 
into their own hands. They will cling to Home 
Land, and not become voluntary or involuntary exiles. 
Woe to those governments or classes who undertake 
to throttle their resurrection! There may be wading 
in blood to the horses' bridles, as reads the Apoca- 



CHBISTIAN DUTIES AND HESPONSIBILITIES. 1'29 

lyptic vision. Earth will then become again Aceldama, 

unless the Almighty intervenes through some Cosmic 

catastrophe as once before. 

Duties and responsibilities of Christian believers, 

in such solemn relations are unmistakably plain. 
They cannot be excusably shunned. — 
What light there is in them must so shine before 

men that they may see their good works, and glorify 

their Father Who is in Heaven. — 

They must not merely *'say,'' but "do." — 
They must be known by their good "fruits.'' — 
Their creed must be translated into their lives. — 
Then, perhaps, the aspiration may be hopefully 

cherished, that — 

Jesus shall reign where'er the sun 
Doth his successive journeys run ; 
His Kingdom stretch from shore to shore, 
'Till moons shall wax and wane no more. 



9 



ILLUSTKATIVE AISTD SUGGESTIVE. 



Next to the originator of a good sentence is the first quoter of it. — Emerson. 



The heretics in civilization, not to speak of theology, have done 
most for the world. 

To the young man. He made the gate-way very strait on the 
side of property , to a certain lawyer .He made it strait on the side 
of the two great commandments ; and when Nicodemus came to 
Him, He made it almost impassably strait by saying: " Except a 
man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God." — Ecce 
Deus. 

And the multitudes asked him, saying. What then must we do? 
And he answered and said unto them. He that hath two coats, let 
him impart to him that hath none ; and he that hath food, let him 
do likewise. And there came also publicans to be baptized, and 
they said unto him, Master, what must we do? And he said unto 
them. Extort no more than that which is appointed you. And 
soldiers also asked him, saying. And we, what must we do? And 
he said unto them, Do violence to no man, neither exact anything 
wrongfully; and be content with your wages. — Luhe in : lo-i^. 

Some one asked Dr Way land, if he thought a certain heretic 
like the speaker was a Christian. The doctor replied, " Can he 
cast out devils? That was all the people cared for, because it 
Avas the true test of Christianity'. Creeds were of little account 
when men were doing good and casting out devils." 

If a man will do, before he gets religion, like he thinks he would 
do after he gets it, he will get it. — Smn. P, Jones. 

In Him, human nature had laid aside all its ferocity, all its pride, 
its unforgiving malice, its violence, its selfishness, its sensuality, 

(130) 



THE CREED IN THE DEED. 131 

its discontent, and appeared all tenderness, humility, forbearance, 
liberality, patience and self-denial. — Dr^ Channing. 

The considerateness of Christ was shown in little things. And 
such are the parts of human life. Opportunities for doing greatly 
seldom occur; — life is made up of infinitesimals. If jou compute 
the sum of happiness in any given day, you will find that it was 
composed of small attentions, — kind looks, which made the heart 
swell, and stirred into health that sour, rancid film of misanthropy, 
which is apt to coagulate on the stream of our inward life, as surely 
as we live in heart apart from our fellow creatures^ . . . What 
was the secret of such an one's power.? What had she done? 

A lady told me the delight, the tears of gratitude, which she 
had witnessed in a poor girl to whom, in passing, I gave a kind 
look on going out of church on Sunday. What a lesson! How 
cheaply happiness can be given ! What opportunities we miss of 
doing an angel's work ! I remember doing it, full of sad feelings, 
passing on, and thinking no more about it, and it gave an hour's 
sunshine to a human life, and lightened the load of life to a human 
heart, for a time ! . . . Love descends, not ascends.— i^. W. 
Robertson. 

Lowliness is greatness, genuine goodness is greatness, child-like 
obedience to God is greatness. True dignity is a lowly and guile- 
less state of soul. — The Christ of History. 

There are people with strong religious feelings, who are not 
made better by them ; who at church or in other meetings are moved 
perhaps to tears, but who make no progress in self-government or 
charity, and who gain nothing of elevation of mind in their com- 
mon feelings and transactions. They take pleasure in religious 
excitement, just as others delight to be interested by a fiction or a 
play. They invite these emotions because they suppose them to 
aid or ensure salvation, and soon relapse into their ordinary sor- 
didness or other besetting infirmities. . . . 

The great characteristic of true religion is, not feeling, but the 
subjection of our wills, desires, habits, lives, to the will of God, 
from a conviction that what He wills is the perfection of virtue, 
and the true happiness of our nature. — Dr. Channing. 

Devotional feelings are very distinct from uprightness and pu- 
rity of life; — they are often singulai-ly allied to the animal nature. 



132 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

the result of a warm temperament, — guides to hell under the form 
of angels of light, conducting the unconscious victim of feelings 
that appear divine and seraphic, into a state of heart and life at 
which the very world stands aghast. . . . Our basest feelings 
lie very near to our highest; — thej pass into one another by insen- 
sible transitions. 

No man becomes honest till he has got face to face with God. 
There is a certain insincerity about us all — a something dramatic. 
One of those dreadful moments which throws us upon ourselves, 
and strips off the hollowness of our outside show, must come be- 
fore the insincere is true. 

The soul collects its mightiest forces by being thrown in upon 
itself, and coerced solitude often matures the mental and moral 
character marvellously, as in Luther's confinement in the Wart- 
burg ; or to take a loftier example, Paul during his three years in 
Arabia; grander still, — His solitude in the desert: the Baptist's, too. 
— F. W. Robertson. 

Let him, therefore, live much by himself, that he may learn to 
stand firm among his lellow-men ; let him dwell habitually in the 
region of everlasting truth, that he may not be the sport of the 
caprices of the day. — Dr. Ckanning. 

There is much to be said by the hermit or monk in defense of 
his life of thought and prayer , . . Act, if you like, but you 
do it at your peril. . . . The fiery reformer embodies his aspi- 
rations in some rite or covenant, and he and his friends cleave to 
the form, and lose the aspiration. — Emerson. — Goethe. 

By the Pythagorean method of education, the pupil was con- 
demned to silence for five years. Hegel says that, "in a sense, 
this duty of silence is the essential condition of all culture and 
learning " — E. R. Caird, LL. D, 

He who himself and God would know, 
Into the silence let him go. 
And, lifting off pall after pall, 
Reach to the innermost depth of all. 

— Martineau. 

"Mine hour is not yet come " . He could bide His time. 

He had the strength to wait, c . In all the works of God 



THE CREED IN THE DEED. 133 

there is a conspicuous absence of haste and hurry. All that He 
does ripens slowly. Six slow days and nights of creative force 
before man is inade ; two thousand years to discipline and form a 
Jewish people; four thousand years of darkness, ignorance 
and crime, before the fullness of the Time had come, when He 
could send forth His Son. . . . Whatever contradicts this Di- 
vine plan must pay the price of haste — brief duration. All that is 
done before the hour is come decays fast. ..." He that be- 
lieveth shall not make haste." — F W. Robertson. 

God goes fast enough. He will not let you go any faster than 
He goes. And who are you, that cry because you cannot run 
before God.-* Be sure that you keep up with Him; be sure that 
when He takes a step, you step too, and step lively. — H. W. 
Beecher. 

Men are impatient, and for precipitating things : but the Author 
of Nature appears deliberate throughout His operations ; accom- 
plishing His natural ends by slow, successive steps. — Butler^s 
Analogy. 

Rapidity of movement was no part of the providential design. 
Like the seed to which Christ Himself compares the Gospel, all 
the early stages of its life were to be silent and to be slow. Grad- 
ually to lay a broad basis of such evidence — as ought through all 
time to satisfy the reason and the heart of mankind, seems to have 
been the object which our Savior wrought. — Gladstone on Ecce 
Hotno. 

No changing of place, at a hundred miles an hour, nor making 
of stuffs a thousand yards a minute, will make us one whit strong- 
er, happier or wiser. There was always more in the world than 
men could see, walked they ever so slowly ; they will see it no 
better for going fast. And they will, at last, and soon too, find 
out that their grand inventions for conquering (as they thinkj 
space and time, do, in reality, conquer nothing. A fool always 
wants to shorten space and time . a wise man wants to lengthen 
both. A fool wants to kill space and time: a wise man, first, to 
gain them, then to animate them. Your railroad, when you 
come to understand it, is only a device for making the world 
smaller. , . * The really precious things are thought and 
sight, not pace. It does a bullet no good to go fast ; and a man, 



134 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

no harm to go slow ; for his glory is not all in going, but in being. 
. . . I believe if we had really wanted to communicate reli- 
gion, we could have done it m less than i, 800 years, without 
steam. Most of the good in religious communication, that I remem- 
ber, has been done on foot; and, it cannot be easily done faster 
than at foot-pace. — Ruskin. — Morals and Religion. 

He revered the family institution , he regarded the parents as 
priests in their households, and he anticipated evil from any thing 
which dispensed with this priestly office. He believed that 
the members of a family should live at home. He disliked the 
practice of living out of doors, of having all things common, and 
of giving publicity to all religious action. Home devotions, home 
teachings, home duties of all kinds, he exalted to the highest 
place. . . , 

'* There are no conversions, after the hour is out." — Dr. Em- 
mons. — Park, 

If there is one thing that should be more imperative than an- 
other, it is that your children shall be at home at night; or that, if 
they are abroad, you shall be abroad with them. . . . Keep 
your children at home nights. . . . Take care of your chil- 
dren at night. — H . W. Beecher, 

Pecuniary contributions to the cause of Christ flow, to great ex- 
tent, from something else than religious principle ... A 
very intricate complication of motives does overlay, if it does not 
displace Christian simplicity, in the contributions of the treasures 
of the church to the support of the Gospel. Besides, in merely im- 
pulsive benevolence, we have too much reason to suspect the play 
of secondary, even of frivolous, and often of positively sinful mo- 
tives, — in the outlay of pecuniary resources for this object. The 
pecuniary sacrifices of the church are, probably, the least valuable 
index of its Christian character. 

Missionary treasuries may be filled as with the profusion of old 
chivalry. Benevolent societies may be as the stars in number, 
and popular enthusiasm may mount to ecstacy at the appeals from 
our platforms Denominations may marshal their strength in 
vieing with each other for the endowment of church extension. . 
• . Yet, let "the manliness of the Pulpit" be "emasculated," 



THE CREED IN THE DEED. 135 

and all this show oi Christian energy soon becomes but a tawdry 
parade. ... In God's sight, it becomes detestable. An old 
Roman Triumph had a far more manly significance. 

Is it not true, that denominational growth may, after all, be de- 
lusive.'* May not church extension become but a noble name for 
ecclesiastical pillage.-' Is it not possible, that we may be found to 
have been of those who preach Christ of envy and of strife."* . . 
Christians are an immense assemblage of undeveloped resources. 
— Austin Phelps in Bib. Sacra, July, i8^4- 

Any attempt to promote a benevolent object by an appeal to 
selfish motives, is wTong. Benevolent giving is a means of Chris- 
tian culture, but selfish giving in the form of benevolence, is a 
deception and a snare. If the cause of benevolence cannot be 
supported benevolently, it had better not be supported at all. Any 
other mode of supporting it will dry up the fountain. — Mark Hop- 
kins. — Laxv of Love 

The rich man who goes to his poor brother's cottage, and, with- 
out affectation of humility, naturally, and with the i^espect which 
man owes to man, enters into his circumstances, inquiring about 
his distresses, and hears his homely tale, has done more to estab- 
lish an interchange of kindly feeling, than he could have secured 
by the costliest present, by itself. . . Public donations have 

their value and their uses, . , but in the point of eliciting grat- 
itude, all these fail. — F- W Robertson. 

The child that is nursed on church grab-bags, fish-ponds, guess- 
cakes and wheels of fortune, with all the other nameless appliances 
of these fairs for pious purposes, will save that in his soul which 
will mature into agreed nothing can satisfy. — Where Is The City? 

We can do most good by individual action, and our own virtue 
is incomparably more improved by it. It is vastly better that we 
should give our own money with our own hands, from our own 
judgment, and through personal interest in the distresses of others, 
than that we should send it by a substitute. Second-hand charity 

is not as good to the giver or receiver, as immediate Dr. 

Channing. 

Men should be their own almoners. . God meant every 

man to be charitable as much as to be prayerful , and He never in- 



130 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

tended that the one duty, any more than the other, should be 
done by a deputy. — Wqyland^s Moral Science. 

The habit of receiving pleasure without any exertion of thought, 
by the mere excitement of curiosity and sensibility, may be justly 
ranked among the worst effects of habitual novel reading. . . 

Those who confine their reading to such books, dwarf their own 
faculties, and finally reduce their understandings to a deplorable 
imbecility . — Coleridge. — The Friend. 

These books enfeeble the intellect, impoverish the imagination, 
vulgarize taste and style, give false or distorted views of life and 
human nature, and, what is worst of all, waste that precious time 
which might be given to solid inental improvement . . 
tend to weaken practical benevolence, and may end in quenching 
it altogether. 

Sensibility is of no value, except as it is under the direction of 
judgment and reason , which presupposes, therefore, the harmon- 
ious culture of all the faculties and susceptibilities of our nature 

Keep a sort of debtor and creditor account of sentimental indul- 
gence and practical benevolence. I do not care if your pocket- 
book contains some such memoranda as these: **For the sweet 
tears I shed over the romantic sorrows of Charlotte Devereux, 
sent three basins of gruel and a flannel petticoat to poor old Molly 
Brown." " For sitting up three hours beyond the time over the 
'Bandits's Bride," gave half a crown to Betty Smith," "My sen- 
timental agonies over the pages of the ' Broken Heart ' cost me 
three visits to the Orpjian Asylum, and two extra hours of Dorcas 
Society work " — The Grey son Letters. 

Passive impressions, by being repeated, grow weaker; . . . 
practical habits are formed and strengthened by repeated acts. — 
Bishop Butler. 

There is such a heavenly sweetness in divine communion, such 
true and perennial happiness and joy in walking with, and in the 
light of God, as to lift the mind, by a natural law, entirely above 
feeling the necessity of worldly ainusements. 

And I find not a sentence in either of the four Gospels incul- 
cating the doctrine that the indulgence of the " play element " in 



THE CREED IN THE DEED. 137 

our nature is essential to, or even compatible with the highest 
form of Christian experience. 

But let any one who lives upon the mount of communion, who 
wrestles with God, and lives in a revival spirit, day after day, in- 
dulge in pleasure-seeking and hilarious mirth, then go to his 
closet, and see if he can offer " the fervent, effectual prayer " that 
prevails with God. 

Whatever exercise, recreation or amusement is essential to healthy 
and is really taken for the glory of God, as a necessary condition of 
our highest usefulness, and engaged in, not for the sake of the 
amusement, btit as an offering and service rendered to God, and, ac- 
cording to our best light and judgment, the best thing nve can do for 
the time to fit ourselves for highest usefulness in the Kingdom of 
God, — is right and duty. 

All pleasure-seeking, for the sake of the pleasure, and not de- 
signed to glorify God, and advance the interests of His Kingdom, 
is wrong. 

Only let the Holy Spirit, with all His quickening and enlighten- 
ing influences, bathe the soul in heavenly light from day to day, 
and the lower and worldly aspirations of the soul will be effectu- 
ally suppressed. — Pres. C. G. Finney. 

To be able to look at a pleasure, yet to keep it at arm's length 
for the sake of a brother, is the highest attainment of discipline. — 
Ecce Deus. 

Italy, for fifteen hundred years, has turned all her energies, all 
her finances, and all her industry to the building up of a vast army 
of wonderful church edifices, and starving half her citizens to ac- 
complish it. She is to-day one vast museum of magnificence and 
misery. All the churches in an ordinary American city put to- 
gether, could hardly buy the jewelled frippery in one of her 
hundred cathedrals. — Mark Ttvain. 



Against the pain, even the eternal pain of loss, — against the 
certain truth that we shall receive according to our works, — 
against Christ's revelation that there will, in the life to come, be 
degrees of punishment, light or heavy, in proportion to the de- 
grees of guilt; that these punishments will come by the working 
of natural laws, — the penalty being the natural result of the sin, 
not the arbitrary infliction of external agency ; that a soul may 
possibly, even forever, by its own act and its own will, shut itself 
out from the presence of God, and be unreclaimed, even by the 
bitter taste of the fruit of its o\vn doings ; — these are doctrines 
neither unjust nor unmerciful, nor is there anything in them 
which revolts and maddens the conscience, and the instincts of 
mankind. — Canon Farrar. — Mercy and Judgiyient. 

May we not trace something not wholly unlike the irrevocable 
sentence of the future, in that dark and fearful, yet too, certain law 
of our nature, by which sin and misery ever tend to perpetuate 
themselves , by which evil habits gather strength with every fresh 
indulgence, till it is no longer, humanly speaking, in the power of 
the sinner to shake off the burden which his own deeds have laid 
upon him ? In that mysterious condition of the depraved will, 
compelled, and yet free, — the slave of sinful habit, yet responsible 
for every act of sin, and gathering deeper condemnation as the 
power of amendment grows less and less, — may we not see some 
possible foreshadowing of the yet deeper guilt and the yet more 
hopeless misery of the worm that dieth not, and the fire that is not 
quenched? The fact, awful as it is, is one to which our every 
day's experience bears witness. — Mansel. — Limits of Religious 
Thought. 

L'Enfer c'est le peche meme. L'Enfer c'est d'etre eloigne de 
D iQu.—Bossuet. 

Juste Judex ultionis! 
Donum fac remissionis 
Ante diem rationis 

Ingemisco tanquam reus, 
Culpa rubet vultus meus: 
Supplicanti parce, Deus! 



— Dies Irce. 



(138) 



CHAPTER IIL 



NO CONTBITION, — NO REMISSION. 

Excep ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. — Luke xm.'s- 
And these shall depart into everlasting punishment. — Matth. 
XXV. 46. 

Until the advent of Jesus, retaliation for injury re- 
ceived in body, property or reputation, had not been 
deemed, save by a few extraordinary sages, antago- 
nistic to the philanthropic spirit, or the Hebrew faith. 

Ye have heard, said He, that it was said: An eye 
for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say unto 
you: Retaliate not upon the evil doer. . , . That, 
thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. 
But I say unto you: Love your enemies, speak kindly 
to those who curse you, do good to them that hate 
you, and pray for them who calumniate and perse- 
cute you. Matth. v: 38-44. 

These injunctions were given to individuals, with 
respect to their mutual conduct towards each other, 
in private and personal relations; — not to Society or 
the State, for guidance in dealing with offenders 
against the rights and interests of members, — there- 
fore against the common weal. They were given, 
specially, to His disciples. 

There has been no difficulty in the comprehension 

a39) 



140 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

o£ the Spirit of this requirement; there has been 
much with respect to specific application, — to condi- 
tions of forgiveness, and to distinctions in wrongs. 

Unquestionably, believers are required by the Mas- 
ter to love all men, the bad as well as good, even per- 
sonal enemies, not once their wicked conduct. 

While they may love the souls of the depraved, 
they can never cease to abhor their unrighteous con- 
duct. Nor is a desire to see just punishment inflicted 
upon them, as transgressors against God, society, or 
an individual, at all inconsistent or in conflict with 
that love, the injured must cherish ever for the spir- 
itual welfare of the injurers. Indeed, the truly con- 
trite for sin acquiesce in and approve their just pun- 
ishment for it. Unquestionably, also, the Christian 
is bound to forgive an injury done to him by a brother 
man — believer or unbeliever, when he evinces genuine 
contrition for his wrong, even to unlimited repetition; 
for the divine bound to forgiveness is not a definite 
"seven times," but the indefinite "seventy times 
seven." It will be noticed, however, in the seven- 
teenth of Luke, that the repeated condition of for- 
giveness is, "t/Zie rcpenl" The contrition must be 
genuine; not merely regret, induced by the fear of 
detection, and by dread of just punishment, but that 
" godly sorrow " which "worketh repentance." The 
wrong-doer cannot justly demand forgiveness, — the 
formal remission of his wrong, until he has first man- 
ifested contrition for it. The degree of its turpitude 
will be determined by his knowledge or ignorance, 
his alleged good or bad intent, which can only be dis- 
cerned by God. "Father! forgive them," said 



FORGIVENESS CONDITIONED ON REPENTANCE. 141 

Jesus, " for they know not what they do." The in- 
clination to forgive, — the yearning for the privilege 
of its manifestation may be dominant; — love, pity, 
dissociated from any retaliatory desire, may be cher- 
ished ever in the heart of the wronged towards the 
wrong-doer; but by what ethical stress can the act or 
word of forgiveness be demanded or be pronounced, 
except on the ground of the Godly contrition of him 
who has wronged ? Jesus, our Teacher and Exem- 
plar, declared: "If ye forgive not men their tres- 
passes, neither will your Heavenly Eather forgive 
your trespasses." And He taught all His disciples 
to pray: "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our 
debtors." But this presupposed contrition, and a de- 
sire for forgiveness, on the part of the "debtor." 
When believers pray to their Heavenly Father: "For- 
give us our debts," truly they are, or must be, in a 
sorrowful state of heart on account of them, and de- 
sire their remission. Could they expect the grant of 
their petition from the Father, otherwise? Would 
He grant it? Assuredly not. The beloved disciple 
declared : If we confess our sins, He is faithful and 
righteous to forgive us our sins. I John i : 9. Con- 
trition, inclusive of confession to God and the wronged, 
is made a condition precedent to the obtainment of 
forgiveness from Him. Surely, then, wrong-doers 
have no right to expect forgiveness from those they 
have wronged, unless they are in the contrite state. 
God is said to be, anthropopathically, — in language 
suited to human apprehension, "angry with the 
wicked every day." Jesus, the final Judge, represents 
Himself, under the figure of the "nobleman," as say- 



142 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

ing: Howbeit these Mine enemies, who would not 
that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay 
them before Me. Luke xix:27. And the prophet, 
speaking in His name, exclaimed: Behold, ye de- 
spisers, and wonder and perish. Actsxiii:41. Did 
He forgive them? In His expiring agonies on the 
Cross, He prayed, indeed: *' Father! forgive them, 
for they know not what they do." But this, it is be- 
Keved, had special, if not exclusive reference to the 
Roman soldiery, who, without thought or question, 
were the blind and passive executioners of the will of 
their military superiors. The Son of God rose to 
grander heights of magnanimity, than human- 
ity has ever attained; and He might have cried with- 
in Himself: "Poor, murderous Scribes, Pharisees! — 
hypocrites though they be," — "Father, forgive them." 
But could He additionally cry, "for they know not 
what they do?" Did they not know? Poor, brutal, 
heathen soldiery! They did not realize the inhuman- 
ity, the enormity of the crime they perpetrated. 
Their vocation was human butchery. They had be- 
come insensible to human suffering. Rarely, if ever, 
had their minds been stirred with the discussion of 
such refined topics as the guilt or innocence of a vic- 
tim passed over to their tortui-e. The cry from the 
great heart of Jesus was, as it must be for all such 
from those who would approximate to Him:. "Father! 
forgive them, for they know not what they do." It is 
difficult for the great-minded and the large-hearted 
to cherish resentment towards simple ignorance, — the 
lack in realization of the baseness of wicked 
conduct. It is pity, rather, for it, sorrow more than 



SCRIBES AND PHARISEES KNEW WHAT THEY DID. 143 

anger. The sense of justice, however, — consciousness 
of specific right and wTong, is not utterly extinguished 
in the most brutal. Can the emotion be the same to- 
wards intelligent, conscious transgressors? It can- 
not be. Was Jesus thinking of these sacerdotal mur- 
derers in that awful hour, when He sent up out of 
His agony such a cry to His Father? It is believed 
not. Of all men of their time, and of their nation, 
they were the most intelligent and refijied in Biblical 
casuistry, in the subtle distinctions of legal morality, 
for they had ever the law and the prophets. They, 
in the coolest blood, with malice prepense, conspired 
for His death, knowing Him to be innocent. Was it 
for them? It is presumed not. How could He pre- 
sent such a petition on their behalf? They knew 
what they did. So did Pilate. Must it not have been 
exclusively for those barbarian soldiers? It might 
have included the ignorant Jewish rabble, howling at 
the beck and stimulus of the Priesthood: "Crucify, 
Him! Crucify Him! " 

Ah! if compunction had seized upon these sacer- 
dotal murderers, while this Tragedy of tragedies was 
being enacted, doubtless He would have cried: 
"Father! forgive them, for they are coming to repent." 
Or, He might have cried out for them in their God- 
forsaken condition: "Father! make them realize 
w^hat they have done." Bring them to repentance, — 
in the spirit of a kindred exclamation, "O Jerusalem, 
Jerusalem," etc., that I may forgive. So must all 
His followers cry out for those who designedly, de- 
liberately, intelligently wrong them and others. 
Thus must they distinguish, in the character of their 



144 THE CHBIST IN LIFE. 

petitions, between the consciously and the uncon- 
sciously v/icked. Forgive those who know not what 
they do! Open their eyes, that they may see! Or, 
seize upon the adamantine-hearted, the conscience- 
seared, with the omnipotent energies of Thy Spirit, 
that they may repent! Or, if they will not, and will 
stand in the exercise of the freedom of their will, as 
obstacles in the way of Thy cause, — athwart the path 
of Divine progress, — their conduct conspiring for, 
conducing to the material and the spiritual ruin of 
multitudes of souls; let them go down; let them be 
swept away. Why not? Why shouldn't they? 

It was at such momentous junctures, under such 
solemn circumstances, that David was impelled, as 
will every just and God-fearing person be, to cry 
out in those objurgatory, so styled, "imprecatory," in 
fact, prophetic Psalms: Desolations are impending 
over them! They shall descend to Sheol alive! for 
wickedness is in their dwellings, in their heart. Ps. 
lv:15. Let them be as chaff before a wind: the angel 
of Jehovah striking them down. Let their way be 
dark and slippery: the angel of Jehovah pursuing 
them. For without cause they hid for me their pit- 
fall; without cause they digged for my soul. Let 
ruin come upon him unawares; and let his net which 
he hid, — let it take him into that very ruin. And my 
soul shall exult in Jehovah, shall joy in His salvation. 
Ps. XXXV : 5-9. Do to them as Thou did'st to Midian: 
as to Sisera, as to Jabin, in the valley of the Kishon. 
They were destroyed at Endor, they were dung to the 
earth. . . . O my God! make them like the 
whirling chaff before the wind. As fire consumes a 



THE IMPBECATOBY PSALMS. 145 

forest, and as flame setteth the mountains on fire; so 
wilt Thou pursue them with Thy storm, and with Thy 
tempest terrify them. Fill their faces with 
shame, and men ivill seek Thy name, Jehovah! 
Ps. lxxxiii:9-16. Many such righteous cries went up 
to God from oppressed hearts during the late South- 
ern rebellion, and, it is believed, they prevailed.^ 

When men deliberately stand up and defy God Al- 
mighty, why should they not go down, — perish, if 
they will not cease their defiance, quit their rebellion, 
get out of the way of the chariot of His progress? 
Such an issue being made, one or the other must 
yield, — go down. Must, will God? 

On the heads of the guilty, responsible principals 
in these atrocities, Jesus foretold that most terrible 
calamities would fall. "Fill ye up the measure of 
your fathers. Serpents ! brood of vipers ! how can ye 
escape the damnation of Gehenna?" He solemnly 
announced to the High Priest, Head-Center in this 
Tragedy of wrong, that he and his confederates shall 
henceforth see Him, sitting at the right hand of 
Power, and coming on the clouds of Heaven. Matth. 
xxvi:64 And to Pilate He said: He that delivered 

I. A renowned professor was once walking in Boston with a 
clergyman of a radical faith, who objected to the doctrine that the 
Bible is inspired, and did so on the ground of the imprecatory 
Psalms. . . . The two came at last to a newspaper bulletin, on 
which the words were written, (the time was at the opening of 
our civil war), " Baltimore to be shelled at I2 o'clock." "I am 
glad of it said the radical preacher, I am glad of it." " And so am 
I," said his companion, "but I hardly dare say so, for fear you will 
say, I am uttering an imprecatory psalm. — 'J^os. Cook. 
10 



146 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

Me unto thee, hath greater sin. Johnxixtll. *'The 
times of ignorance, God winks at," — overlooks, doubt- 
less, forgives unconscious guilt; for where none is 
realized in intention, there will, necessarily, be no 
contrition, though there will be subsequent sorrow, 
when the apprehending, accusing hour doth come. 
There are multitudes of offenses against it personally, 
of which a soul, in its magnanimity, may take no note, 
chiefly on account of the ignorance of the offender. 
As it approaches nearer and nearer to the Just One, 
that number will be increased. But, outside and in- 
dependent of one's self, with respect to injury re- 
ceived, sin committed, remains a duty to be performed 
— paramount — to God and to society at large. Sin 
will be always sin, and can never be minified, is to be 
repented of, and to be redressed sometime. As against 
holiness and the government of God, it must be noted, 
and take its legitimate penalty. 

Believers must make the same distinction between 
ignorant transgressors, unconscious of their wrong- 
doing, and intelligent wrong-doers, fully cognizant of 
theirs. For the first, they may fittingly, after the 
example of their suffering Savior, earnestly plead: 
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they 
do." For the last, out of the fullness of a forgiving 
heart, if able to attain to it, they may send up a cry 
to God, as did the martyr Stephen for his Hebrew 
murderers: "Lord! lay not this sin to their charge, 
—with the limitation, of course, if it "be Thy will." 
But can it be believed, that God did not lay this sin 
to their charge, if they did not subsequently repent? 
Nay, indeed, He must have done so: we would rev- 



SINNEES WILL BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE. 147 

erently say, He did do it When the Hebrew martyr 
High Priest Zechariah was given up to assassination 
by the ingrate, recreant Joash, he justly cried: The 
Lord look upon it, and require (requite?) it, which 
God did, and will ever. II Chron. xxiv:22. One of 
the witnesses, the noted Saul of Tarsus, did repent, 
and his sin was remembered, — for judicial cognizance 
and charge .no more, though he himself could not 
cease to remember it with sorrow. Against others, — 
principals, accomplices, confederates, or consenting 
witnesses, this murderous crime must have been laid. 
Has He not, on every occasion, declared He would 
hold sinners accountable for sin? Has He ever re- 
mitted it without prior confession, — the realization 
and expression of sorrow for it ? Indeed, if Stephen 
could speak to us from those holy heights he has as- 
cended, would he not declare, that justice requires 
their punishment, if they did not subsequently 
repent? 

The example of the Divine Father is presented to 
His children for imitation. As they are able to ap- 
proximate, in the least, to His supreme goodness and 
perfection, they are moving in the safe path. He 
maketh His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and 
sendeth rain on the just and the unjust. Matth. v:45. 
But the inquiry is pressed: Does He remit sin before 
the manifestation of repentance on the part of the 
sinner? Thus may believers invoke the blessings of 
a repentant state on their personal enemies, most ef- 
fectually, by faithful testimony to their wrong; re- 
turn kindness for evil; contribute to their necessities; 
love them; pray for them, — not only that they may 



M8 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

be prospered in temporal things, if it will conduce in 
fact to their real welfare and to God's glory, but, 
above all, that they be blessed spiritually in the real- 
ization of their depraved condition, in conviction of 
their guilt, and in repentance for it. But can they 
be said to forgive wrong, when there has been no 
previous contrition for it? Does the Christian 
parent ever cease to love his sinful, disobedient, un- 
repenting child with all possible intensity, to yearn 
for his recovery from waywardness, to plead for him 
with God, day and night, with tears, while he refrains, 
by necessity, from the pronunciation of those melting 
words, " I cease, by forgiveness, to remember thy dis- 
obedience for charge against thee," until he first sees 
in the heart of the child, that sign of Godly sorrow 
that conduces to repentance, in some form expressed? 
Words are not essential. They may not be spoken. 
There are deeper, surer indications of sorrow. The 
loving heart can always detect and interpret them. 
They can be discerned a great way off. There may 
be no forgiving demonstration, though there be yearn- 
ing for the exercise. The expression is not given, 
the sacred words are not pronounced, until the melt- 
ing occasion comes. The child must first repent. 
Does the judge hate the criminal, though he is com- 
pelled to pass sentence upon him? May he not love 
him, pity him, yearn for his eternal weal, while he is 
meting out to him the legal and the just penalty for 
his crime? Does a true church, the body of Christ, 
decline to come at last to the act of excision, when of- 
fenders, after the faithful and patient performance of 
the prescribed steps of labor, prove to be incorrigible 



PRIVATE AND PUBLIC INJURIES. 149 

and refuse to repent? Can it be said to manifest an 
unrelenting spirit, because it does not forgive before 
the manifestation of repentance? Did our govern- 
ment indiscriminately forgive impenitent rebels, re- 
mit all penalties for tlieir crime, and restore them 
completely to that political state they enjoyed before 
theii' rebellion? Yet, unquestionably, in its public 
acts, it cherished towards them no other emotions 
than of love and grief; indeed, ran like a father, to 
meet them, more than half way, to induce them to 
return again to the family of the Nation, — the "United 
States." Indeed, it is questionable, whether its leni- 
ency in special instances was not mistaken — a confes- 
sion of weakness, and of inability to properly vindi- 
cate justice and right. 

There is, also, a distinction between public and 
private injuries. And injury to the individual is 
wrong to society and to God as well. While the in- 
dividual may forgive for himself on the evidence of 
contrition, he cannot forgive for society, or for God. 
What would become of the world, if this mawkish 
sentimentalism of forgiveness without repentance, 
and its demonstrated fruits, did prevail? There 
would be no government, no security for person, rights 
or property. Anarchy would succeed. Transgressors 
must repent to the wronged individual, the injured 
society, the disobeyed God, if by them they would be 
forgiven. There is no other alternative. Without 
hesitation, it is said to thee, O sinner! thou must first 
repent, if thou would'st be forgiven; otherwise there 
is no hope for thee. Thou must take the eternal con- 
sequences of thy continued alienation from God, un- 



160 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

less thou wilt be reconciled to Him in His way; and 
such consequences are Gehenna. There need be no 
other. This is falling into the hands of the living 
God. Eepent, O fallen one ! Obtain forgiveness, or 

THOU AET LOST ! 

Doubtless, the prescriptions of Jesus, with respect 
to the treatment of offenders, had special reference to 
the local circumstances of His disciples when in the 
flesh, as well as for universal application. They must 
not "resist," physically, the "evil" — not retaliate upon 
the evil-doer for the personal injury inflicted by him, 
— Gentile or heathen unbeliever. There could be no 
satisfactory redress; indeed, they might be compelled 
to suffer additionally, if the State came to note the 
variance and the controversy. But can it be believed, 
that our Savior meant to enjoin non-resistance, pas- 
sive submission to every species of physical or moral 
wrong, under any circumstances, in any age of the 
world, on the part of individuals or of communities ? 
If so, what would have become of all Christian gov- 
ernments in their gigantic contests with diabolism ? 
— the Netherlands, France and England, our own na- 
tion in the late rebellion? 

Believers were to "rebuke" the offending, impeni- 
tent "brother;" but if he "repented," they were to 
"forgive him." If he did not repent, after the com- 
pletion of the steps of labor prescribed (Matth. xviii), 
his case was to be brought to the church; if he would 
not hear it, he was to be treated as " a heathen and a 
publican," — to be refused fellowship, and even asso- 
ciation. This is decisive. The Apostles followed 
with directions, in accordance. 



THE PATERNAL DEALING. 151 

Ah! it may be said and 'tis true, that theology in 
the letter, rigid, inflexible, just, as law in the abstract 
is, fails us, — being human, when we stand by the dy- 
ing bed of our loved ones, especially children. We 
remember their transgressions no more. Memories 
of certain elements of goodness, attractiveness, come 
in troops. The prattle, the innocency, the guileless- 
ness, the sweetness, the lovingness and the trustful- 
ness of their childhood rise up before us. Extenua- 
tions, palliations of their faults, — lapses, as they have 
affected us personally, follow; and parental love will 
endeavor to remember them for charge no more. 
But can the unconditioned forgiveness of a parent's 
heart -cover their wrong-doing, as it has affected 
others, — God? True, there are no limitations to the 
heart of the Divine Parent, as there are to the human. 
Doubtless, there is some analogy between the dealings 
of a human and the Divine Father in such an exig- 
ency, as there is correspondence in their emotions. 
Does He not deal with us Here as children? Conse- 
quences cannot be averted, as we are able to appre- 
hend; as not Here, so not There! Consequences 
upon others! Ah! consequences upon ourselves! 
They retro-act. Logically, however deep, tender, 
yearning, deathless may be the love, compassion of a 
Father's heart, — human or divine, we are not able to 
see how they can cease. 'Tis possible for God to stop 
them, as all things are possible to Him. He can an- 
nihilate. Does He? Will Hef 

Jesus revealed God as a Father. To all His decla- 
rations and requirements, — the developments of His 
providence. He gave a paternal interpretation. He 



152 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

taught US thus to pray and to trust in Him. The 
imagery He employed for the illustration of the di- 
vine government, — the relations of men to Him, the 
emotions He ever retains towards them, — sinners 
even, wayward, impenitent, incorrigible, — was pa- 
ternal. All theology, therefore, claiming to be Chris- 
tian, should be based on, and permeated by this funda- 
mental representation. The conception of Jehovah 
as arbitrary, despotic, stern, relentless and unforgiv- 
ing, prevailed in some theological systems. It im- 
pressed, but did not attract. God, doubtless, in the 
execution of what He deems to be just and right, is 
rigid and inflexible. But like earthly governors, 
parents, without their fallibility, He may be moved 
to take a certain procedure with transgressors, in 
preference to another, as just and right, — all His 
varied ways being absolutely just and right; until He 
sees there is no remedy, but the infliction of the ulti- 
mate and irrevocable penalty for disobedience. 

A good father seems to his right-minded children, 
not only the wisest, the firmest, but the best of men. 
— merciful, patient, forgiving. He overlooks, he en- 
dures, he forgives to the 4ast. He remembers when 
the loved one is humbled, contrite, to punish no more. 

Doubtless, the consequences of sin upon others 
ensue, though God may forgive, and the sinner re- 
pent. There is no evidence that God interposes to 
stay, or to annul the inseparable results of 
wrong-doing, save a specific penalty upon contrition. 
It is difficult to conceive that He could, as His Uni- 
verse is constructed. Must not every deed impinge 
upon some thing or some body, in mind as well as 



CONSEQUENCES OF SIN IMMEASURABLE. 153 

matter, — be antecedent to some inevitable consequent 
in physics or morals ? Are earthly parents more be- 
nign, patient, tender, forgiving to their children than 
the Divine? What does He declare respecting Him- 
self? I, I am He that blotteth out thy transgres- 
sions for Mine own sake, and will not remember thy 
sins (for accusation) — Isaiah xliii: 25; that is, it is 
to be supposed, when His people had been brought 
to realize their insubordination, and thence to contri- 
tion. I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remem- 
ber their sin no more. Jeremiah xxxi : 34. For I 
will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their 
sins and their iniquities will I remember no more (to 
accuse, to punish, for memory is indestructible). Heb. 
viii:12. The prior humiliation and contrition for all 
such rebellious are presupposed as conditioning their 
forgiveness. 

God is Love, it is said. He must be pitiful, mer- 
ciful. He cannot inflict eternal punishment for a 
temporal sin. There can only be, it is affirmed, a 
measure of penalty for a measure of guilt, — a time- 
period of punishment for a time-period of sin. 

Sin, its degree of turpitude, its baleful con- 
sequences, the penalty adequate, requisite therefor, 
cannot be measured by the point of time spent in its 
commission. A crime may be committed in a mo- 
ment, the consequences of which, even upon the crim- 
inal himself, are not only endless, but irreparable. 
Who is able to limit them ? A forger, by the stroke 
of his pen, subjects himself to the felon's doom. Loss 
of character extends beyond that. Confidence in 
Him, as before, never returns. He may repent of 



154 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

his act, and may be restored, measurably, to the trust 
of his fellows, — never, altogether; for, though they 
may be assured of his genuine contrition for the past, 
and honest intentions for the future, they will fear to 
trust him again, since he furnished such an appalling 
demonstration of his weakness and of his tendencies; 
— that the Devil's subtlety, through infirmity inherent, 
or fastened by habit, may prove an overmatch for 
him again. Society at large will trust him no more. 

Penalties, it is repeated, are inseparable from vio- 
lations of any physical, intellectual or moral law. 
God cannot, as is conceived, — being such, and the 
constitution of His Universe being such, intervene 
between them, save in the remission of the specific 
penalty upon Godly sorrow required. He forgives 
and saves men on repentance, but are the sequences 
of their wrong-doing upon others stayed? Do they 
not travel on, falling often in this life on others, in- 
nocent of guilty participation? 

It is presumable, that our first Parents repented of 
their disobedience, and have been, ever since, safely 
housed in one of the many mansions of eternal bliss; 
but have the results of th^ first transgression ceased? 
Can it be otherwise than that they remember? and 
remember but ineffectually to deplore ? The pangs 
of memory, as well as its joys, are indestructible. 
Repentance mollifies the sting, and intensifies the 
joy of realized forgiveness. It will not be necessary 
to punish transgressors through the infliction of any 
statutory, arbitrary penalty. The punishment is in- 
herent in the transgression. Crime and its conse- 
quences are as inseparable as the flower from the 



THE DAY OF JUDGMENT — ONE ETERNAL NOW. 155 

bulb, or the harvest from the seed. "Hell is sin 
itself."— "The other half of crime." 

For every guilty deed 

Holds in itself the seed 

Of retribution, and undying pain.x 

Blood for blood, and blow for blow : 
Thou shalt reap as thou did'st sow.a 

Conceptions and anticipations of judgment after 
death, and of the subsequent punishment of the con- 
demned, have been shaped very much by the consid- 
eration of judicial machinery, and of penalties at- 
tached to crime in this world. A literal interpretation 
is given to the scenery of Matth. xxv, which probably 
is only symbolic, — fearfully enough .of the dread reality 
in the future. It is for no one rashly to affirm the 
improbability, that there will be any such literal an- 
alysis and adjudication of the human race, individ- 
ually, on one occasion before the Judge on a visible 
White Throne. The scenery is, at least, a symbol of 
the fearful scrutiny which each soul will be compelled 
to endure, as it passes disembodied into the spiritual 
world; for "one day is with the Lord as a thousand 
years, and a thousand years as one day." The Day 
of Judgment — the Last Day, is one eternal Now. The 
Books have ever been open. Men have ever been 
disappearing from the earth, and, when they confront 
their Maker, must be judged. It is evident, that all 
do not go the same "place." Judas, it is recorded, 
went "to his own place;" — it surely was not that 

I. Longfellow. 2. -^schylus. 



156 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

which Jesus went to prepare for His disciples.^ The 
thought is fearful, that between some in the same 
circle, at the same table, by the same fireside, in the 
closest relations, there may be a measureless, impass- 
able "chasm" of spiritual state. Each will go to his 
own "place," — not far .certainly , from him. 

Besides the information given in these literal dec- 
larations, or dramatic glimpses of the spiritual world; 
true conceptions, it is believed, of the process of 
judgment and of punishment there, may be gathered 
from the analogous processes in this — the material. 
Disobedience to any physical, mental or moral law, 
taking with it the legitimate penalty, requires no 
institution of Court, Judge or Juror; no witness, ad- 
vocate or sheriff; no formal verdict or sentence for 
the enforcement of its penalty. Judge, juror, wit- 
ness, advocate, verdict, sentence and executioner ^ are 
inherent in the unrepented sins committed. 

All must die physically, but, ordinarily, one may 
protract his life, or curtail it, as he regards or disre- 
gards conditions of extended being. Spiritual well- 
being has, also, its conditions. There is a voice of 
God in the soul; — a clear perception of what is good 
and of what is evil; a standard of right and wrong, 

1. John xiv : 2. — I go to prepare a place (totcov) for you. 
Acts i : 25. — That he might go to his own place (tottov). 

Luke xvi:28. — Lest they come into this place (to7:ov) of 
torment. 

2. The school men distinguished conscience as (Tovrrjprjffig 
— the custodian of accepted precepts or rules; conscience as 
auvsid-qaii; — as witness; and conscience as eixixplaiq — as judge 
and executioner — Noah Porter. — Moral Science. 



PENALTY INVOLVED IN TRANSGRESSION. 157 

and discrimination between them; an omnipresence 
of the sense of juscice, truth and holiness which can- 
not be put by; a conscience, — consciousness of con- 
sciousness, — self -consciousness; conviction; appre- 
hension of coming judgment. The Spirit of God 
comes to still further enlighten, to reprove, rectify, 
stimulate and guide. When heed is given to these 
combined behests, joy, self-approval ensue. When 
disregarded, remorse and self-accusation follow. 
These will be rewards and punishments as defijiite as 
the Judgments on the White Throne, at the Last 
Day. Having such a spiritual constitution, in the 
midst of the Universe and course of material and 
immaterial being, — wheel within wheel, — a wheel 
within this Infinite Wheel of the Universe; the dis- 
regarded laws of spiritual well-being, ever executing 
their own penalties, which will be falling into the 
hands of the living God — a fearful thing (Heb. x:31) ; 
what necessity would there seem to be, — it is, perhaps, 
presumptuous to even broach the inquiry, — of a Last 
Day, a literal Day of Judgment, and that for all, at 
the same time, and on the same occasion? Each and 
every day would be a doom's day to some soul. The 
penal results of every transgression, involved as are 
flower and fruit in bulb or seed, will develop in their 
season. The feet of all transgressors shall slide in 
"due time." The harvest hour must, will come. It 
cannot be stayed. The Nemesis of sin is at hand. 
"The feet of the avenger are shod with wool." They 
are close upon the heel of the fleeing transgressor. 
Soon he will overtake. 



158 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 



-With slow pace and silent feet his doom 



O'ertakes the sinner when his time is come.x 

Confront, tliou must, O sinner, at the last, thy 
doom ! Eocks and mountains cannot cover thee from 
the avalanche of woe I Seel there is an open way! 
Escape for thy life ! 

But if these are only the forebodings of a pessimis- 
tic nature, of a morbid temperament, or diseased im- 
agination, in thy view, O genial one ! with thy hopeful 
and rosy-tinted anticipations of the Future, and there 
is no Gehenna, why did such an august Savior come? 
Why did He Himself shroud the Future of the un- 
believer with the blackness of darkness forever; and 

FROM WHAT DOES He SAVE MEN? 

The sharpness, positiveness and rigidity of that 
which was understood in New England by the term 
^^ Orthodoxy J "^ have been materially mollified and 
modified during the last quarter or half century; cer- 
tainly, the preaching of those who profess to accept 
it has not been attended with that power and demon- 
stration that once accompanied it. All appeals to the 
conscience, and all logical grapple with the under- 
standing, were based on the assumption of the pravity 
of ; human nature; the helplessness of men in them- 
selves as sinners; the necessity, if they would be 
saved, of their regeneration through the Spirit, and of 
trust in the Savior, Jesus, — God manifest; that the 
wicked shall go away into the punishment, and the 
righteous into the life which are eonian, — as verities, 
clearly, vividly, incontrovertibly revealed.^ The lev- 

1. Euripides. 

2. The simple fact is, the two nouns punishment and life are 



GOD HAS "severity" AS WELL AS "GOODNESS." 159 

erage brought to move the soul upon such a basis 
was tremendous; and the results corresponded: con- 
victions were pungent, radical, revolutionary and 
abiding. The severe aspects of Truth presented and 
emphasized, served to drive souls into the Kingdom 
under the stress of fear; but with any imperfection, 
it was certainly one side, if but the reverse of the ob- 
verse. The "goodness," rather than the "severity" 
of God; mercy, than judgment; His magnanimity, 
love, unlimited pity, tenderness and placability, un- 
wearied and unceasing patience, are in these recent 
times most beautifully delineated and urged, whilst 
His firmness, stability and inflexibility; His holiness, 
justice; abhorrence of sin; jealousy for the honor of 
His government; the necessity laid upon Him to 
punish all transgressors; the adequate penalty ever 

qualitative in and of themselves, as indicating the hindoi existence 
or state intended ; while the adjective is quantitative^ as implying 
the duration of that state or existence. 

" Toujours, jamais ; toujours, jamais," — in English, " Forever, 
never." Well may the mighty clock of the Future, as slowly it 
beats forth the centuries and cycles of eternity, seem unceasingly 
to repeat those solem words in the hearing of lost souls, 

" The horologe of Eternity 

Sayeth this incessantly: — 

' Forever — never, 

Never — forever.' " 

— J- W. Haley. — Hereafter of Sin. 
Eternity or endlessness is in itself mainly a negative idea, 
though the idea of suffering is positive. Its fearful force, as an 
element of future punishment, lies in what it excludes : it means, 
never any change of state, no annihilation or restoration; but 
what, considered positively, it adds to suffering, we do not know. 
<'r-Qardinal I^eivman. — GramTnar of Assent. 



160 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

being involved in the commission of any sin by inev- 
itable sequence, — the effect eternally inseparable from 
its cause, so that sin is its own avenger; no arbitrary 
Personal God being needed to avenge it; — all these 
severer, nevertheless truthful aspects of the Gospel, 
have not been as conspicuous, and so prominently 
urged as formerly/ 

Ministers, as prophets and apostles before them, 
quite naturally have shrunk from the discussion of 
these awful themes, painful to themselves and offen- 
sive to their hearers. " Send by the hand of him 
whom Thou wilt send," and "Woe is me," "because 
I am a man of unclean lips," are the exclamations at 
heart of many commissioned ones; and there have 
been many Jonahs. But, if these are verities, who 
shall dare to suppress them? Who shall presume to 
dilute, minify or emasculate God's Word? "What is 
the chaff to the wheat? He that hath My Word, let 
him speak it faithfully." There is, apparently, less 
earnestness in religion, and less apprehension of the 
Future than formerly. The multitudes surge on, as 
if there was no danger ahead, — no material or spirit- 
ual Mega Chasma in state or place, into which gen- 

I. Such indiscriminate mashing up ot Good and Evil into one 
patent-treacle, and most unmedical electuary of Rousseau Senti- 
mentalism, universal Pardon and Benevolence! 

"Christianity," so-called, has grown, to within these two cen- 
turies, on the Howard and Fry side as on every other, — a paltry, 
mealy-mouthed " religion of cowards," who can have no religion 
but a sham one, which also, as I believe, awaits its abolition from 
the avenging power. If men will turn away their faces from 
God, and set up idols, temporary phantoms, instead of the Eternal 
OnCy — alas! the consequences are from old well known. — Carlyle^ 



FUTURE DESTINY OF THE IMPENITENT. 161 

eration upon generation has been tumbling. They do 
not hear the roar of the cataract just beyond. True, 
fear is a lower motive than love or hope; both inferior 
to supreme regard for Truth and Eight in themselves, 
aside from any personal interest involved; but, since 
men are weak, swayed by their supposed interests, — 
children in years and knowledge, and cannot be de- 
terred from violation of God's La"W by appeal to the 
higher motives of love for it, appeals to the lower mo- 
tives are justifiable for the attainment of the divine 
end. God, in his dealings with the Hebrews, during 
the long line of their national history, never failed to 
avail Himself of these means to move. He so acts as 
a Divine Father, and all wise parents resort in like 
ways to sway their children. Behold, therefore, the 
kindness and severity of God: on the fallen in sin, 
severity; but upon thee, kindness, if thou dost con- 
tinue to be worthy of it: otherwise, thou shalt be 
cut off. Romans xi:22. Knowing, therefore, the 
fear of the Lord, we persuade men. II Cor. v:ll. 

Yes, there is, must be Gehenna, — spiritual state or 
place, where the worm of remorse dieth not and the 
fire thereof is not quenched, for the finally incorrigi- 
ble, — robbers, murderers, oppressors, — the mean, the 
vile, the inhuman who will not repent, and so far as 
they can, undo and recompense the wrong they have 
perpetrated and the distress they have caused on the 
earth; otherwise, how could the gooduess and the jus- 
tice of God be vindicated? — those who have passed 
through the great tribulation caused by the diabolic, 
be compensated for their suffering? Will there be 

11 



162 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

no distinction between the career of the good and the 
bad, in the other life, — in their final destiny? There 
must be. O Thou Good and Omnipotent! Thou art 
Just and Holy, as well as Good! Wickedness is ut- 
terly offensive and abhorrent to Thee ! — must be to all 
who love Thee, who would be like Thee ! Thou must 
and Thou wilt mete out its condemnation. The God- 
defiant must take the consequences of undertaking to 
run against Thee, — ^be triturated! The wrongs of the 
innocent and the just must be redressed, and Thy 
Justice vindicated! Amen ! and Amen ! So let it be. 
Righteous art Thou, Who art and wast, Thou Holy 
One! because Thou did'st thus judge. For they 
poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and 
Thou hast given them blood to drink: they are de- 
serving. . . . Yea, O Lord God, the Almighty, 
True and Eighteous are Thy Judgments! Rev. 
xvi:5, 6, 7. 



ILLUSTRATIVE AND SUGGESTIVE. 



Next to the originator of a good sentence is the first quoter of it. — Emerson. 



I am to love the bad man ; but I am also to love society ; to love 
mj family, my friends, my country ; and if the bad man arm him- 
self for the ruin of these, I am bound to repel him In so doing, 
do I not act from a principle of charity, especially if to save the 
good, to defend the community, I expose my own life in resisting 
the bad? I can certainly oppose a wicked man's purposes, and in 
so doing can inflict on him severe pain, without hating him, and 
even with the deepest grief for his character and punishment. I 
may even feel, through the strength of my philanthropy, a se- 
verer pain than I inflict. — Dr. Channing. — Memoirs. 

The duty of Christian forgiveness does not require you, nor are 
you allowed to look on injustice, or any other fault with indiffer- 
ence, as if it were nothing wrong at all, merely because it is you 
that have been wronged. — Archbishop Whately. — Notes on Bacon. 

The philanthropic man may even love his enemies, bless them 
that curse him, and pray for them that despitefully use him and 
persecute him, and yet not forgive them in the right sense of that 
term. The man may excuse an offense against himself, but he 
has no power to excuse an offense against righteousness. 

God Himself cannot forgive a sinner apart from certain con- 
ditions, which the sinner himself must supply. . God does 
not inflict the punishment, the punishment is the effect of a cause. 
. . . God cannot annihilate a moral agent. . . When Christ 
said, *' He that believeth not shall be damned, he announced a 
consequence, he did not threaten a penalty. — Ecce Deus. 

We are reminded of the duty of " mutual forgiveness." Is all 
the wickedness, then, that I am doomed to witness, nothing but a 

(163) 



164 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

fersonal affront? When a rascal threatens to blow out my neigh- 
bor's brains, or to blast his character bj infamous accusations, am 
/ in a position to forbear and pardon ? Must I not own myself 
under a solemn trust, to see the right done and the guilty pun- 
ished? . . o "Who is this that forgiveth sins also?'' The 
eternal laws of justice are not of our enacting; and no will of ours 
has title to suspend or to repeal them. The real and only demand 
of Christian magnanimity is, that we visit them with no ven- 
geance, but merely with moral retribution. , . . Rulers at all 
events, as trustees of rights other than their own,-^and each gen- 
eration of a people, as charged with the interests of successors in 
perpetuity, — have but a limited privilege of forbearance ; the 
meekness of the saints would in them be treason to the world. 
Even in international disputes, where each party may have a con- 
viction of right, the controversy, but for the possibility of force, 
could have no end. It is a delusion to rely on courts as a substi- 
tute for armies, and to suppose judicial decision can supercede 
military. — Jas Martmeau. — Ethics of Christendom. 

Forgiveness of an unrepented sin would be as contrary to mercy 
as to justice. — Murj>hy. 

In His tenderest accents of mercy there is always blended some 
reverberative note of judgment; as if there was a voice behind, 
saying, " behold, therefore, the goodness— and severity of God." 

The tenderest, purest souls will be hottest in the wrath-principle, 
when any bitter wrong, or shameful crime, is committed. They 
take fire and burn, because they feel. ... 

God, without the wrath-principle, never was, and Christ never 
can be, a complete character. This element belongs inherently 
to every moral nature. God is no God without it, man is no man 
without it. . . . This principled wrath gives staminal force 
and majesty to character. It is in this principle of the moral na- 
ture that it becomes a regal nature. In these indignations against 
wrong, it champions the right and judges the world. 

One of the things most needed in the recovery of men to God, 
is this very thing ; a more decisive manifestation of the wrath- 
principle and justice of God. Intimidation is the first means of 
grace. No bad mind is arrested by love and beauty, till such time 
as it is balked in evil and put on ways of thoughtfulness. And 



NO CONTRITION, — NO REMISSION. 165 

nothing will be so effectual for this, as a distinct apprehension of 
the wrath to come. — Dr. Busknell. 

His wrath was terrible, and it did not evaporate in words. But 
it was Christ-like indignation. With those who were weak, 
crushed with remorse, fallen, — his compassion, long-suffering and 
tenderness were as beautiful as they were unfailing. But false- 
hood, hypocrisy, the sin of the strong against the weak, stirred 
him to the very depths of his being. — Memoirs of F. W. Robertson. 

Indignation being a noble and divine quality, is led by reason, 
and is the servant of justice. ... I cannot conceive beauty 
of character without indignation at evil. — Stopford A. Brooke. 

The greatness of a fault depends partly on the nature of the 
person against whom it is co^runitted, partly upon the extent of 
its consequences. Its pardonableness depends, humanly speakings 
on the degree of temptation to it, esteeming those faults 

greatest which are committed under least temptation. — Ruskin. — 
The Punishment of Sin. 

With many minds, . . the undeniable aspiration, the in- 

stinct, the sentiment, will always appear sufficient grounds for be- 
lieving in Retribution, Immortality and God. Unquestionably, 
this hunger of Humanity is an integral part of our nature. And, 
we might ask, with Aristotle, shall man's appetition be in vain? 
This "deep-set feeling," says Dr. Tyndall, "since the earliest 
dawn of history, and probably for ages prior to all history, incor- 
porated itself in the religions of the world. . . . To yield this 
sentiment reasonable satisfaction, is the problem of problems at 
the present hour. . . . It is vain to oppose this force, with a 
view to its extirpation." — Wm. Jackson. — Bajnpton Lectures. 

Anger and indignation against cruelty and injustice, resentment 
of injuries, desire that the false, the ungrateful and the depraved 
should meet with punishment; these, if not in themselves virtuous 
feelings, are, at least, not vicious. . . . What would be a crime 
in a private man to do, is a crime in a magistrate not to have done: 
still wider is the difference between man and his Maker. , . . 
Retributive justice is the very attribute under which God is pri- 
marily brought to us in the teachings of our natural conscience. — 
J. H. Newman. — Grammar of Assent. 

The reverence for human life is carried to an immoral idolatry, 



166 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

• 

when it is held more sacred than justice and right, and when the 
spectacle of blood becomes more horrible than the sight of desolat- 
ing tyrannies and triumphant hypocrisies. Life, indeed, is just 
the one thing — the reserved capital, the rest, the ultimate security 
— on whose disposability in the last resort, and on the free control 
over which, the very existence of society depends. . . . All 
law, all polity, is a proclamation that justice is better than life, 
and, if need be, shall over-ride it and all the possessions it includes ; 
and nothing can be weaker or more suicidal than for men who are 
citizens of a commonwealth to announce that, for their part, they 
mean to hold life in higher esteem than justice. — yas. Martineau. 

The right of self-preservation is involved in the right of a gov- 
ernment to exist. A nation thus maintaining its existence, is 
contending not merely for its own immediate interests, but tor the 
common right upon which all governments must stand. . . . 

Benevolence is love, a disposition to benefit and bless ; and this 
is due towards enemies, as well as friends. War involves violence 
and evil towards enemies. True, and so does the punishment of 
crime, by fine or imprisonment or death. But the highest benev- 
olence requires the punishment of crime, and the officer of justice 
performs a benevolent act in inflicting the penalty. It is just as 
consistent with a benevolent heart, as an act of charity or mercy. 
To save a nation from threatened danger, is an act of benevolence, 
and the patriotism which leads one to risk his life for his country, 
is one of the noblest forms of virtue. It springs naturally and 
necessarily from love to God and love to man, and involves no 
hatred towards the enemy, even in the very act which causes his 
death. The responsibility of the act is to be accepted, as a stern 
and awful duty, like the execution of the sentence of the law upon 
a criminal. 

The evils of war are manifold and frightful to contemplate. 
They come in such forms, and are so concentrated, as to be appre- 
ciable to the dullest apprehension ; but the evils of tyranny, and 
oppression, and natural degradation, though less striking in form, 
affect the character and condition of every individual, and endure 
through generations. — Fair child. — Moral Philosophy. 

Non-resistance is absolutely wrong. We may not carelessly 
abandon our rights. We may not give away our birth-right for 



NO CONTRITION, — NO REMISSION. 167 

the sake of peace. If it be a duty to respect other men's claims, 
so also is it a duty to maintain our own. That which is sacred in 
their persons is sacred in ours also. — Herbert Sjfencer. 

There is no den in the wide world to hide a rogue. Commit a 
crime, and the earth is made of glass. Commit a crime, and it 
seems as if a coat of snow fell on the ground, such as reveals in 
the woods the track of every partridge and fox and squirrel and 
mole. You cannot recall the spoken word, you cannot wipe out 
the foot-track, you cannot draw up the ladder, so as to leave no 
inlet or clew. Some damning circumstance always transpires. 
The laws and substances of nature — water, snow, wind, gravita- 
tion — become penalties to the thief. — Emerson. 

The terror of being judged sharpens the memory: it sends an 
inevitable glare over the long-unvisited past, which has been ha- 
bitually recalled only in general phrases. Even without memory, 
the life is bound into one by a zone of dependence in growth and 
decay ; but intense memory forces a man to own his blame-worthy 
part. With memory set smarting like a re-opened wound, a man's 
past is not simply a dead history, an outworn preparation of the 
present: it is not a repented error shaken loose from the life: it is 
a still quivering part of himself, bringing shudders and bitter 
flavors and the tinglings of a merited shame. — Middlemarck. 

A crime committed by an individual is to be viewed as an out- 
rage upon himself, and the doom which threatens him in conse- 
quence is not a mere punishment inflicted by a foreign hand, but 
the counterpart of his own deed. — Hegel. 

The evil doer burns by his own deeds, as if burnt by fire. — 
Singhalese Sutra. 

The power for evil, which inheres in sin, never dies, except with 
itself. Sin is essentially self-perpetuative. Evil in a soul goes 
forth, like a diseased breath, into another soul, acts on it insidious- 
ly, and begets new sin in it. The second breathes infection into a 
third, and the third into a fourth. In ever-increasing ratio, the 
numbers multiply and the evil spreads indefinitely — eternally. 
No atonement (in the scholastic sense), no expiation of sin, can 
touch, in the slightest degree, this polluting, corrupting energy, 
which lies in the essential nature of moral evil. — John Toung. 

It is not the inefficiency, but the impossibility of due penitence, 



168 THE CHBIST IN LIFE. 

that constitutes our fatal disability ; to be relieved from which, we 
need to be taken out of ourselves, to be identified with a perfect 
Spirit ; our humanity must cease to be human, and become one 
with the Divine nature. — y^as. Marti7ieaii. 

The souls of some men are already honey-combed through ana 
through with the eternal consequences of neglect, so that, taking 
the natural and rational view of their case just nowy it is simply 
inconceivable, that there is any escapeyz<!5^ now. — Drum7nond. 

The Divine moral government , , . implies that the con- 
sequence of vice shall be misery in some future state, by the 
righteous judgment of God. — BisJiop Butler. 

Nothing seems so terrific as the self-inflicted torture of a guilty 
conscience. It will be enough to fill the measure of his woe, that 
the sinner shall be left to himself, — that he shall be left to the nat- 
ural consequences of his wickedness. In the Universe, there are 
no agents to work out the misery of the soul like its own fell pas- 
sions ; not the fire, the darkness, the flood or the tempest. Noth- 
ing within the range of our conceptions, can equal the dread 
silence of conscience, the calm desperation of remorse, the corrod- 
ing of ungratified desire, the gnawing worm of envy, the bitter- 
ness of disappointment, the blighting curse of hatred. — Orville 
Dewey. — Universalist. 

What is called Hell, in the Scriptures, is a world of misery con- 
stituted by the complete absence of God. It is outer darkness, 
because it is that night of the mind which overtakes it, when it 
strays from God and His light. To be severed eternally from 
God's inspiration is enough, as we are constituted, to seal our com- 
plete misery. — Dr. Btcslmell. 

Hell is the infinite terror of the soul, whatever that may be. . 
. . It is the hell of having done wrong ; the hell of having had a 
spirit from God pure, with high aspirations, and to be conscious 
of having dulled its delicacy, and degraded its desires ; the hell of 
having quenched a light brighter than the sun's ; of having done 
to another an injury that, through time and through eternity, 
never can be undone, — infinite, maddening remorse, — the hell of 
knowing that every opportunity of good has been lost forever. 
This is the infinite terror ; this is wrath to come. 

It is an awful thing to see a soul in ruins ; like a temple which 



NO CONTRITION, — NO REMISSION. 169 

once was fair and noble, but now lies overthrown, matted with 
ivy, weeds and tangled briers, among which, things noisome crawl 
and live. — F W Robertson. 

Spiritual laws with all their penalties and sanctions, are immedi- 
ately self-acting, and without the remotest possibility of failure or 
mistake. 

Life is indeed probation, bvit the judgment that decides is in per- 
petual session ; not for one moment is it adjourned ; every hour it 
renders the awards that angels fulfill ; daily and forever does the 
Christ of humanity judge according to the deeds done in this 
present life, and send to right or left hand destinies. When Christ 
speaks of eternal life, He does not mean future endless existence; 
this may be involved, but it is an inference or secondary thought; 
He means fitness or perfection of life. That it will go on forever, 
is a matter of course, but it is not the important feature of the 
truth. — Munger. — Freedom of Faith. 

Eternal death is no more connected with time than eternal life, 
but is essentially that state of darkness and sin, whether in this 
world or the future, which results from the total loss of the knowl- 
edge and love of God. See John xvii: 3. I John v:ii-i2. — F. 
D. Maurice. — Bib. Sac. ^6j. 

Eternal death does not signify a cessation of existence. It is a 
continuance of existence without the knowledge and love of God. 
It is the opposite of eternal life. It is the death — the living death 
of the spirit — which becomes withered, paralyzed, deformed, de- 
graded, bestial and fiendish. — Triumph of Good Over Evil. 

In the matter of endless punishment for sin, society does in its 
degree, precisely what Almighty God is declared in the Christian 
writings to do. If God punishes the finally impenitent forever, 
man does the same thing, and does it necessarily — because of the 
demands of the moral universe without, as well as the exaction of 
the moral principles within. In other words, the very constitu- 
tion of the moral universe demands and necessitates the endless 
punishment of the impenitent. . . . 

Society punishes. ... all impenitent offenders against its 
laws, and punishes them throughout their ivkole lifetime^ which is 
as much of eternity as its retributive influence can encompass. In 



170 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

very grave cases, indeed, society will not allow the penal shadow 
to pass from the reputation even after death. — Ecce Deus. 

The " eternal " does not in essence express the infinite extension 
of time, but the absence of time ; not the omni-temporal but the 
supra-temporal, the life of the world to come — of that age, in op- 
position to the life of this age. — Westcott. — Historic Faith. 

"-<:Eonian life has in it no thought of time, but is altogether an 
ethical idea or characteristic." — Dr. Hau;pt. 

Eternity consists, not in endlessness, but in knowing, seeing, and 
loving God. " Eternal life," says Erksine, is living in the love of 
God ; eternal death is living in self ; so that a man may be in 
eternal life or in eternal death for ten minutes as he changes from 
one state to the other." 

Eternity is the timeless state. 

" By eternity," says Spinoza, " I understand abstract existence, 
eternal, in- opposition to phenomenal." — Erksine. — Quoted by 
Farrar. 

The future state of punishment is never called life ; it is called 
condemnation or punishment, or death, and is always opposed to 
life. — Scientific Basis of Faith. — Joseph John Murphy. 

" No direct infliction is required to produce eternal suffering," 
but simply the abstinence of Divine interposition to deliver intelli- 
gent beings from the sway and action of sin. — Triumph of Good 
Over Moral Evil. 

Aliovioq implies an indefinite, rather than an infinite duration, — 
a completion of an appointed period, rather than an endless suc- 
cession of ages, — which can never be completed. — The Spirits in 
Prison. — E- H. Plumtre^ D. D. 

A man 2ives a life of debauchery . . finds delight in the se- 
duction of innocence. . . He afterwards repents. One victim 
is dead. . - Another has learned his accursed lesson. . . Can 
his repentance save the dead.^ . . Can it recover the other, sac- 
rificing new victims to his sin "i . . The tears of the murderer 
cannot give life to the murdered. . . The repentance of the 
tempter cannot save the soul sent, stained, — lost into eternity. . . 
One of the shallownesses of modern religionism is in losing the 
vision of the horrible meaning of sin ; . . because the vision of 



NO CONTBITION, — NO REMISSION. 171 

God's white righteousness is lost, men are content with half re- 
pentance. — Church yournal. 

The only reason why human penitence does not in itself avail 
to restore lies in its imperfect purity and depth. Through the 
cloud of evil, and with the eye of self, we are disqualified for true 
discernment of sin as it is: both the limits of a finite nature, and 
the delusions of a tempted and fallen one, hinder us from appre- 
ciating the measure of our guilt and misery. Even when our bet- 
ter mind reasserts itself, our very compunction carries in it many 
a speck of ill, and our repentance needs to be repented of. But 
were it not for this, there would be "more atoning worth in one 
tear of the true and perfect sorrow which the memory of the past 
would awaken, than in endless ages of penal woe." — {Cr, lost.) 

There is no passage in which it is said, that the sin of thought is 
equal to the sin of act. It is simply said, the sin of act may be 
done in thought, so far as thought goes. Whether it is equivalent 
to an act, I think, entirely depends, as I said before, upon the 
question whether, opportunity and safety being given, it is carried 
into action. Where these are not actually given in this world, 
clearly, only God knows, whether it would have been carried into 
act. — F. W. Robertson. 

'Tis one thing to be tempted, — 
Another thing to fall. 

— Measure for Measure. 



If you aspire to be a son of consolation ; if you would partake of 
the priestly gift of sympathy ; if you would pour something be- 
yond common-place consolation into a tempted heart; if you 
would pass through the intercourse of daily life with the delicate 
tact which never inflicts pain ; if to that most acute of human ail- 
ments, mental doubt, you are ever to give effectual succor, — you 
must be content to pay the price of the costly education. Like 
Him, you must suffer — being tempted. — F. TV. Robertson, 

We are sent into this world in the midst of a blind, confused 
jangle of natural laws, which we cannot by any possibility under- 
stand, and which cut their way through and over and around us. 
They tell us nothing; they have no sympathy; they hear no 
prayer; they spare neither vice nor virtue. And if we have no 
Friend above to guide us through the labyrinth, if there is no 
Father's heart, no helping hand, of what use is life? — Old Tovjn 
Folks. 

How oft do they their silver bowers leave, 
To come to succor us that succor want! 
How oft do they with golden pinions cleave 
The flitting skies, like flying pursuivant, 
Against foul fiends to aid us militant ! 
They for us fight, they watch and duly ward, 
And their bright squadrons 'round us plant; 
And all for love and nothing for reward ; 
Oh, why should heavenly God to men have such regard .? 

— Edmund Spencer. 

Rare souls there are who live 

In touch with all things just, and pure, and true, 
Sweet love, their gracious and abiding guest — 
Who from their own white heights grudge not to give 
The sinner and the publican their due. 
Nor care to judge mankind but at its best. 

— Unknown. 

ffUfinaOrj eivai rd avw to1(; xdrcu — Maxim oj Persian Magi. 



(173) 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE CHRIST OF SYMPATHY. 

He was moved with compassion for them. — Mark vi: 34. 

For we have not a High Priest unable to sympathize with us in 
our afflictions, but One, having been like tried in all things, — with- 
out sin. — Heh. iv : ij. 

In that, He Himself being tried hath suffered, He is able to 
succor those tried. — Heb. ii: 18. 

Who comforteth us in all our tribulations, that we may be able 
to comfort others in every tribulation, through the comfort where- 
with we ourselves are comforted by God. — // Cor. 1:4. 

The Present temporal is introductory to the Future 
eternal. It is, doubtless, disciplinary and prepara- 
tory for that Becoming; otherwise, there is no satis- 
factory explanation of its mystery, and men might be 
excusable for breaking out, under the frenzy of their 
suffering experience, into imprecations upon the day 
of their birth, as did Job and Jeremiah. If there 
will be no future adjustment of its inequalities, of 
wrongs inflicted, cruelties endured, ills and evils ex- 
perienced, — then 'tis not strange, that out of despair- 
fulness comes the Epicurean cry: Let us eat and 
drink, for to-morrow we die; or that there is mad- 
dened haste to terminate an existence, the protraction 
of which, without God or hope, is but continuous 

sorrow. 

a73) 



174 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

Seneca, the instructor and defender of the monster 
Nero, and whose ethics are often referred to as com- 
paring favorably with the teachings of Jesus, advised 
a servile retainer, in an occupation about the Imperial 
Court considered degrading, as follows: "Wherever 
you turn your eyes, you see the possible end of your 
sufferings. Here is a precipice; you may descend it 
to liberty. There is the sea, a river, a well; freedom 
is at the bottom. Yonder is a tree; liberty hangs 
from its branches. Here is your heart; pierce it, and 
you are free. Are such deaths as these too painful? 
Do they demand too much of your strength and reso- 
lution? Would you travel towards liberty by an 
easier path? Then, every vein in your body may 
open the way to it." ^ 

But men are not left in darkness or uncertainty on 
the subject. Jesus has brought into full light life 
eonian through His Gospel. Eternal life is pledged 
to those, who through patience in well-doing seek 
glory, honor and incorruption. Eom. ii : 7. 

It is one of the merciful alleviations, perhaps the 
mercifulest of this trial state, that sympathy is as- 
sured to us in every step of the tragic way, from 
God and angels, the Christ-like on earth and the 
glorified in Heaven — themselves having passed 
through great tribulation, — to strengthen, comfort 
and stimulate. More: the Christian believer is as- 
sured he has an Intercessor — by Hebrew analogy and 
figure, for a better apprehension of the all-compas- 
sionate nature of God, — Who, in His human manifes- 
tation, having gone down to the possible depths of 

I. Seneca. — De Tranc^uilitate, 



SYMrATHY — THE FIKST-BORN OF LOVE. 175 

human trial, is tlius doubly made able to sympathize 
with him to the uttermost. 

Sympathy is emotion arising from the endeavored 
putting of one's self in the state of another, and as if 
one were the person himself. It is born of Love — its 
first-born. No one ever loves who does not sympa- 
thize to the fullest extent with the beloved. The 
emotion is keen and intense according to the capacity 
for joy or sorrow. It is most often manifested for 
those in suffering, material, physical, mental or spir- 
itual. For illustration, therefore, it becomes neces- 
sary to specify representative cases of persons, extra- 
ordinary and common events. The degree of its 
manifestation for those in propitious condition, favor- 
ing circumstances, is rarely higher than congratula- 
tion; — it is supposed they need no more. 

Jesus, the Divine Father in manifestation, sways 
men, not only by His wonderful discourse and man- 
ner of it. His mighty works, His geniality and un- 
selfishness. His prayers and holy life, but by His 
unutterable sympathy. It is an ocean, shoreless, 
fathomless, — a well of joy springing up in all trustful 
souls to eternal blessedness. On this fact, the Apostle 
predicated his exhortations to believers to come with 
boldness to the throne of the Heavenly Grace, that 
they may receive strength out of the consciousness of 
His 3ympathy — adequate to cope with evil forces. 
Every Christian will have his antagony in some wil- 
derness, and his tussle in Gethsemane with the DeviL 
He is, it is believed, a person, — not a co-ordinate but 
a subordinate spirit, as is impressively taught in the 
Bible, and all experience confirms, — ^potent, subtle, 



176 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

malignant. To ruin is Ms business, astounding imd 
incomprehensible as is the permission given. Doabt- 
less, not otherwise would souls become sturdy and 
puissant, save through conflict and resistance, — made 
able to cope successfully with all malevolent, mal- 
eficient powers. If any succumb and are overborne, 
and perish in the struggle, it will be because they did 
not clothe themselves with the complete panoply of 
God, as enjoined, that they might be made able to 
stand. Overthrow and death eonian are possible in 
the exercise of free wdll. God did not make men 
puppets, but in His image, sovereigns in their spheres. 

The first Act of the grand Tragedy opened in the 
Garden. Through all its subsequent scenes, he has 
been seen to move, the prime, conspicuous Tragedian, 

Job was a representative man, and his trials, as 
were those of Jesus, were representative. His was, 
doubtless, a real life, dramatized perhaps, with some 
embellishment for the profit of the human family. 
For an intelligent, specified purpose, he was delivered 
for a season to the tests of the Tempter. The Satanic 
One first drew a wall of circumvallation around him, 
involving him in the meshes of human helplessness, 
then commenced his infernal appliances, culminating 
in the cyclone of assault. It was such a succession 
and cumulation of calamities, spiritual and material, 
one after another, as rarely, if ever, fell upon the head 
of any other known one, save Jesus, in so brief a 
time. The Devil had a great soul to grapple with; 
and he summoned all his available resources for the 
hell-storm. Now, such like, more or less, will at 
some period be hurled from some invisible height, or 



THE TEMPTATIONS OF JESUS BEPEESENTATIVE. 177 

out of some spiritual ambush, upon the defenceless 
head of the child of God, when he least expects and 
is least prepared for them. Whence is help in such 
an hour? What would become of the helpless one, if 
there was no one able to sympathize, — adequate to 
help in such time of need, — to impart strength, to 
give victory in such a juncture? 

That formal notice might be given to all, whoever 
would believe and trust in Him, — the Christ in God, — 
He would be their Sympathizer, Helper and Interces- 
sor, as He was their Savior; He grappled with represen- 
tatives of all possible trials; went down with the tried 
to the last depths of despair, — to darkness, — the pe- 
numbra of the blackness of darkness forever; en- 
countered sorties out of Gehenna itself. From Geth- 
semane to the Cross came the last crucial test, when, 
in flickering moments, existence seemed a burden; 
death, relief; annihilation, even, a boon. 

Every child of God will have his Geilfisemane, when 
calamity will pour upon him as a flood, when trouble 
of a mental or spiritual character, or both combined, 
will come to overwhelm him. It will be conflict in 
darkness. All the demons in the Universe will seem 
to be howling about him. It will be the issue the 
Devil makes with every believer. 

Jesus — God — still manifest through Him, can sym- 
pathize with any in such extremity. He is able. He 
can succor, and He, in the extreme hour, will deliver 
from the Hell-storm of infernal forces, and bring out 
unharmed, with not a hair singed or a garment 
scorched, with not even the smell of infernal fire on 

12 



178 THE CHBIST IN LIFE. 

them. After the Trial, shall come the angels, as they 
did to Him. 

The approaches to, and the assaults upon the Son 
of God were the climax of Satanic tact and cunning. 
They succeeded an extraordinary fast, at the com- 
mencement of His grand public life, when visions of 
earthly glory might be supposed to be unfolding be- 
fore Him; when the Hebrews as a nation, and those 
who had begun to have faith in Him, entertained just 
precisely the opposite anticipations of His reign that 
they should. The Devil stole upon Him as a mes- 
senger from the skies. And of this, we are ever to be 
fore-apprised, that he "teansfoems himself" into 
an angel of light, as the original has it. And we must 
recognize the presence of the Tempter, by the nature 
of the suggestion. 

"If thou be the Son of God, command that these 
stones be made bread," and thus prove to the world 
that Thou art He, whom Thou claimest to be. The 
Devil needed no proof of His divine origin. He knew 
He was the Son of God, * and the Savior knew the 
Devil knew it. He did not, as He never would, grat- 
ify an idle curiosity, much less subserve a wicked 
purpose. He was to endure the diabolic test to the 
end. He was not for an instant to distrust God. He 
must live, by Faith. He recognized the presence of 
the Tempter, whether or not he was personally vis- 
ible in his stolen garb. He recognized his presence 
by the nature of the suggestion, — the character of the 
temptation. No, said He: It is written: "Man shall 
not live by bread alone, but by every word that pro- 
ceedeth out of the mouth of God." This we recog- 



THE CLIMAX OF SATANIC ASSAULT. 179 

nize as a representative of a class of temptations, to 
which believers are specially exposed, viz., to distrust 
God in the crises of material or spiritual peril. 

Is one tempted to get bread by unlawful means, at 
the expense of truth, honor, integrity, — all that is 
priceless in the soul of a man ? Is conscience put to 
the worst by self, when it mutters against its remon- 
strances, its monitions, its entreaties: I have money 
invested in this business ? " What shall I do for the 
hundred talents ? " And is the response of conscience 
ineffectual? — "The Lord is able to give thee much 
more than this." II Chron. xxv:9. Jesus has encoun- 
tered it, and He sends up the potent response in the 
extreme hour : I have been with thee in six troubles. 
I will surely be with thee in the seventh. Job v: 19. 
The life is more than meat. The body is more than 
raiment. My Father feeds the birds of the air and 
clothes the grass of the field. Ye are of more value 
than they. Then shall He much more feed and clothe 
you. Matth. vi. Man shall not live by bread alone. 
The Just shall live by Faith. Eom. i: 17. Thus met, 
for a season will depart the Great Adversary. Is one 
moved to incur unlawful risks in secular or spiritual 
enterprises, for the accomplishment of even a good 
end^ to employ ostentatious instrumentalities, instead 
of the simple means prescribed by his Master for 
the extension of His Kingdom? Jesus has been 
taken to the pinnacle of this human rashness and 
folly. It was proposed, or suggested, that in un- 
authorized reliance on the care of His Father, He 
cast Himself down, and thus give to the crowd below 
that "sign" which they sought from Him, in attesta- 



180 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

tion of His Messiahship. " He will give His angels 
charge concerning Thee. On their hands they shall 
bear Thee np, lest Thou be dashed upon the stones," 
suggested the Devil. Jesus met the enemy promptly : 
"Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." Thus 
met, shall discomfiture come to the Seducer. Is one 
led to regard Christian principle, Christian profes- 
sion as secondary in importance, — to turn his back 
upon them, when they stand in the way of material 
acquisition, of social, professional or political advance- 
ment? Is a soul in that fearful position, when it is 
tempted to barter its inheritance for a mess of pot- 
tage, — renounce Christian obligation, recant solemn 
vows, perjure itself in the presence of God, angels 
and men, for the sake of Mammon ? Jesus was taken 
to the "exceedingly high mountain" of this trial. 
Thus, probably, was He somewhat assailed:— 

If Thou veritably he the Son of God, turn from Thy 
proposed life among the lowly, Thy mission to the 
poor, because the Sanctities, the Kich, the Powerful 
among men will reject Thee. Thinkest Thou art able 
to cope with the hierarchy? Prophets and saints be- 
fore Thee have gone down before it in the contest. 
Such course will inevitably culminate in a violent, 
excruciating end. Turn to a life worthy of what 
should be the lofty ambition of the Son of God, and 
which will achieve, much more speedily and effect- 
ually, the object for which Thou did'st come to dwell. 
Divine Man, in the midst of men. Get power, and 
place, and especially money. Accommodate Thyself 
to the prejudices of Thy countrymen, and to their 
carnal expectations. Put Thyself at the head of the 



THE LAST ASSAULT. 181 

populace, and sweep the Romans from the land. 
Make Thy will sovereign over all other wills. 'Stablish 
an empire over the minds of men, by outward show, 
by statute law, or by irresponsible despotism, as 
circumstances require. Force men to believe on Thee! 
It was the grand, the final charge. But in vain. 
"Away Tempter." "Thou shalt worship the Lord 
thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve." This 
Scripture met him, 

-nor more ; but fled 



Murmuring, and with him fled the shades of night.x 

Then angels came. Thus always, — the enemy suc- 
cessfully resisted and routed, come the angels of hope, 
consolation and inspiration. "Fiends" 

" Are baffled and beaten bj " 
" A dauntless human will/'a 

Poor Peter, on the announcement of his Master 
that suffering and death awaited Him on his going to 
Jerusalem, presumptuously took Him aside and un- 
dertook to remonstrate familiarly, and we must sup- 
pose, affectionately and with good intent. Be it far 
from Thee, Lord. This shall not happen unto Thee. 
Matth. xvi: 22. Peter did not anticipate Gethsemane, 
the Judgment Hall and the Cross, where his perjury 
in denial of his Master would be so conspicuous. 

Back through the form of the fervid and impetuous 

1. Paradise Lost. 

2. Kathrina. — Holland, 

Baffled shall the Tempter flee, 
And God's angels come to thee. 

— Swedish, 



182 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

Galilean wliom He had previously pronounced 
"blessed," the Savior discerned the Tempter, foul, 
malignant, hateful, and cried: Avaunt! Get thee 
behind me. Thou art an offense. Thou art con- 
cerned about the human, not the Divine. Thus has 
the great enemy met God's people in all ages, and 
been most successful, as he has always been with 
false religionists. 

It is a sad revelation in history, that under the spur 
of such enticement, real or professed children of 
God, when they had the power, attempted to force 
others to conform to their dogmas, as did regal idol- 
ators before them. To the three faithful Hebrews the 
cry was, Conform or Burn. Soon after the ascension 
of the Master, the cry from professed disciples was. 
Conform or Burn. Every organization secular or re- 
ligious, outside of the local churches, has had its des- 
pot or pope, who has cried out to the non-conforming 
ones within its range. Conform or Burn. 

True, the modern fire is spiritual in lieu of ma- 
terial, — it is a holocaust of souls, instead of bodies. 
No less hot has been the fire. All such methods are 
not only unchristlike, but diabolic. If truly Christ- 
ian, such should have cried out: Avaunt, Tempter! — 
Spirit of Evil! Truth prevails through love, not hate; 
— suasion, not force. 

Often has Satan whispered, if not formally and 
earnestly remonstrated through a bosom friend, af- 
fectionate wife or darling child, to one when about to 
consecrate himself to some holy work. Do not peril 
your comfort, health and life, — the dearest interests 
of those whom you love — dependent upon you. Why 



USE OF FBIENDS FOR TEMPTATION. 183 

will you abandon us, cries a father, or a mother, or 
husband, or wife, or child? 

Doubtless, Satan employs dearest friends, as he did 
Peter, to convey temptation. Look then upon them 
affectionately, and cry for strength to say, as did Paul 
to the endeared ones who endeavored to dissuade him 
"from going up to Jerusalem," having been foreap- 
prised what would befall him there : " What mean 
ye to weep, and to break my heart? for I am ready, 
not only to be bound, but to die at Jerusalem in the 
name of the Lord Jesus. Or, if nature shrinks from 
the costliest sacrifice, and the heart strings are crack- 
ing, take sweetly but firmly, those jewels of love in 
thine hand, and pass them over to the keeping of trust- 
worthy Providence, and say as once did a missionary 
mother: "This I do for Christ." ' If the crisis and 
the issue require a sterner and a firmer tone, turn to 
the Tempter, back through the remonstrating or the 
weeping loved one, and say. Away! thou art a stumb- 
ling block in my way to heaven. Said Bishop Lat- 
imer in a sermon before Edward YL: "Here is a 
goodly lesson for you, my friends. If ever you come 
into danger, in prison, for God's quarrel, and for His 

I. Missionaries, to whom God has given children, are not 
ordinarily called, it is believed, by Him, to cast them upon the 
cold charities of the world, to leave them in the struggle for ex- 
istence in the hands of strangers, thousands of miles distant from 
them, without a father's guidance, and a mother's love daily minis- . 
tered for their right development; nor can such abandonment of 
one's offspring, it is believed, be the highest manifestation of 
Christliness. The stamp of sadness, of isolation and orphanage 
upon the countenances of such has been painful to discern. Their 
souls are as precious as those of the heathen. 



184 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

sake, I will advise you first, and above all things to 
abjure all your friends, all your friendships, leave not 
one unabjured; it is they that shall undo you, and not 
your enemies." 

Sir Thomas More's wife begged and entreated that he would 
yield. It was only a small point. Many bishops and other 
Church dignitaries had done it, and surely he, a layman, might do 
it. It might be done quietly, and the king would gladly meet him 
half way ; and, besides, what harm could it be to him to seem to 
acquiesce.'' "Ah! my dear wife," said he; "it might mislead 
many simple souls." But she urged: "How happy we may be 
for at least twenty years more, in our charming house and de- 
lightful grounds by the river's side at Richmond, if thou wilt but 
say one word." "Yes, my dear wife; but what are twenty years 
in comparison of eternity.? And how could I enjoy life, as thou 
sayest, if I had done an unworthy action.?" 

And his daughter Margery, dearly beloved, threw herself upon 
his bosom, with her arms about his neck, sobbing and with many 
tears. " Ah! dear Maggy," said the father, "why dost thou try 
me and break my heart.? Wouldst thou have me do this thing 
that I may live a few years longer in the enjoyment of worldly 
pleasure.?" "No, dear father, I would gladly give my life for 
thine ; but I would not have thee do an unworthy action to save 
thee from a hundred deaths." " Oh! dear Maggy, there spoke the 
true heart. Thou art, indeed, my daughter ; dearer to me than 
life." 

" I saw what was coming," said Bunyan. , . . "I was 
inade to see, that if I would suffer rightly, I must pass sen- 
tence of death upon everything that can properly be called a thing 
of this life, even to reckon myself, my wife, my children, my 
health, my enjoyments all as dead to me, and myself as dead to 
them. Yet I was a man compassed with infirmities. The part- 
ing with my wife and poor children hath oft been to me in this 
place, as the pulling of my flesh from iny bones ; and that not only 
because I am too, too fond of these great mercies, but also because 
I should have often brought to my mind the hardships, miseries, 



VERITABLE TRIALS IN HUMAN EXPERIENCE. 185 

and wants my poor family was like to meet with, should I be taken 
from them, especially my poor blind child, who lay nearer my 
heart than all I had besides. Poor child, thought I, what sorrow 
art thou like to have for thy portion in this world! Thou must be 
beaten, suffer hunger, cold, nakedness, and a thousand calamities, 
tliough I can not now endure the wind should blow on thee. But 
jet, thought I, I must venture all with God, though it goeth to 
the quick to leave you. I was as a man who was pulling down 
his house upon the heads of his wife and children. Yet, thought 
I, I must do it — I must do it. . . . 'Twas my duty to stand to 
His Word, whether He would ever look upon me or not, or save 
me at the last. Wherefore, thought I, the point being thus, I am 
for going on and venturing my eternal state with Christ, whether 
I have comfort here or not. If God doth not come in, thought I, 
I will leap off the ladder, even blindfold into eternity, sink or 
swim, come heaven, come hell. Lord Jesus, if Thou wilt catch 
me, do ; if not, / tvill venture for Thy name.^^ 

These be all veritable, palpable in the experience 
of believers; — by no means to be resolved into the 
terrors of a diseased brain, the demons of a disordered 
imagination. There be tragedies of this sort enacted 
daily in the interior life, while the exterior, through 
the roar of the material, moves on. One toils, a slave 
yoked to his daily task, the year round, while there 
is raging inward this conflict of antagonistic spiritual 
forces, this restless tug and tussle, this life and 
death grapple of his inner, perhaps his renewed na- 
ture, with all the powers of darkness, headed by the 
Evil One, — a superhuman pull of the poor soul to 
Heaven, and a ghastly pull of it to Gehenna. If the 
poor assaulted one has heeded specifically the admo- 
nition to clothe himself with the complete panoply of 
God, it is well: otherwise, it is not well: it is evil of 



186 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

the terriblest kind. The odds are fearful. On one 
side is the Adversary, 

" Fierce as ten Furies, terrible as Hell ; " 

on the other, a weak human soul. No unpanoplied 
one can stand. The defenseless is doomed to be lost. 
Scoff and defy, as thou choosest, unbeliever ! there is 
no hope for thee or others, outside of saving Grace. 
Souls move on two ways only — towards God, or away 
from Him; to Paradise or Gehenna. There is no 
horizontal journey through eternity. It is upward or 
downward. Soul ! art thou thus panoplied, that thou 
may'st be able to stand, " and, having done all, to 

STAND?" 

There be other trials, that need not be referred to 
Satanic origin. They may come directly from the 
Father in some evident but incomprehended Prov- 
idence, or indirectly through some human instru- 
mentality. Whom the Lord loves, He chastens, and 
scourges every soul whom He receives. " As many 
as I love, I rebuke and chasten." God's sovereignty 
over the intelligences of His universe is as supreme 
and particular as over matter in gross and in atoms. 
Unbelievers in all ages rebel against such assertions of 
God's prerogative, as they have against the revela- 
tions of the existence of a personal Tempter, conflict- 
ing with their notions of personal freedom and ac- 
countability. 

The believer often finds his favorite plans, his 
darling purposes thwarted, achievement in his self- 
determined career prevented by insuperable obstacles. 
In no one of them does he succeed, though there has 



THE BABRIEES OF PROVIDENCE. 187 

been no lack of sagacious planning, o£ wise forecast, 
of untiring energy, and of unremitting industry. 
This has been the plaint of the good in all ages. Job 
said: My way He hath hedged up, so that I cannot 
pass, and in my path he hath placed darkness. Thou 
putteth my feet in the stocks, and Thou watcheth all 
my paths. Upon the soles of my feet Thou dost set 
a print. When He giveth rest, who then can make 
trouble? and when He hideth His face, who then can 
behold Him ? and this in respect to a nation and an 
individual alike. David said; I am shut up and I 
cannot come forth. Jeremiah: He hath builded 
against me and compassed me with gall and travail. 
He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead 
of old. He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get 
out. He hath made my chain heavy. He hath in- 
closed my ways in hewn stone. He hath made my 
ways crooked. 

"He shutteth up a man, and there is no opening." 
A man must achieve what God has ordained him to 
do, if he has to be shut up to do it, and he cannot do 
anything else. He may be restive under the restraint 
and compulsion in the web of which God has woven 
him; he may endeavor to break out from it, and to do 
something else which his own heart desires; but it 
will be in vain. God builds over against him, and 
encloses him in walls more impenetrable, infrangible 
than granite or steel. If he be a man of God, and 
He has commissioned him to do a certain work, and he 
undertakes to do anything else, to run away from 
duty, God will have him tumbled overboard by his 
fellow mariners, — engulfed in the sea of some mon- 



188 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

strous trouble, if need be, — to be disciplined into 
obedience. 

The declaration of the Master to His disciples was 
and is: To each and every one are imparted gifts, 
means and opportunities. Matth. xxv:15, I Cor. xii: 
11, Mark xiii:34. Be occupied in their improvement 
until I come (Luke xix:13), so that, when I summon 
you to reckoning of stewardship, I may receive My 
own, — value enhanced by use. But, to many con- 
scientious, — to those who would, with the most scru- 
pulous fidelity, perform the duty and discharge the 
trust, experience has been painful and bewildering. 
Whenever the votive offering was ready, and the door 
for consecration sought, it was found barred. 
"Barred!" The word is inadequate for expression. 
The barriers are adamantine, for they are the harriers 
of God's providence. Some might affirm, for expla- 
nation, that the devotee mistook the character, kind 
or quality of his offering required; that there was 
ambition to offer gift, of which there was not consti- 
tutional or gracious endowment, instead of the one in 
fact possessed. Doubtless, this has often been true. 
But there have been perplexities in other cases, which 
could not thus be solved. The poor soul had its 
aspirations based on recognized ability and qualifica- 
tion. It honestly, earnestly sought the light and 
guidance of the Spirit. If such bewildered soul can- 
not rely on such indications, and in the use of such 
means, on what can it? 

There is a special mystery among the most incom- 
prehensible. Often has it been, that certain have 
been successful in the earthlies, when sudden calamity 



SOLUTION OF MYSTERIES IN THE FUTURE. 189 

tumbled upon them : it may have been a conflagration, 
a panic, the bankruptcy or the dishonesty of debtors; 
and acquisitions were gone. Courage, energy and en- 
terprise were summoned once more to the breach, 
with like successful results, when dire calamity came 
again. Thrice or more have been the same bitter ex- 
periences dui'ing a score or less of years, until the 
prime and the strength of life have past. Hast thou 
not encountered such, as they staggered onward in 
the way? They had gifts, inherent energy, restless, 
untiring industry, aspirations, perhaps culture; were 
by no means incautious or insagacious; had observed 
conditions of material prosperity, in diligence, integ- 
rity, reliability in word and deed. In God's name, 
what must they do? Must they not occupy till their 
Master calls? Was not the command designed to 
press on them, as on all? What musi such do 9 It 
seems, there is no place for them but in the grave, as 
it seemed to Job. 

In such bewilderment, in such darkness, there re- 
mains the hope that there will be a future solution of 
such contradictions, irreconcilables, and of such mys- 
teries; otherwise, 'twould not be strange, if men 
questioned whether "life is worth living." There is 
such a Becoming. 

Some time, when all life's lessons have been learned, 

And sun and stars forevermore have set, 
The things which our weak judgment here has spurn'd, 

The things o'er which we griev'd with lashes wet, 
Will flash before us out of life's dark night, 

As stars shine most in deeper tints of blue ; 
And we shall see how all God's plans were right, 

And how what seemed reproof was love most true. 



If we could push ajar the gates of life, 



190 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

And stand within, and all God's workings see, 
We could interpret all this doubt and strife, 

And for each mystery could find a key. 
But not to-day. Then be content, poor heart; 

God's plans, like lilies pure and white, unfold. 
We must not tear the close-shut leaves apart — 

Time will reveal the calyxes of gold.i 

So frequent and marked have been such providen- 
tial interpositions, — styled in the world's parlance, 
disasters; that they were thought by the superficial to 
specially indicate guilt. Job's friends thought so, 
until the Lord rectified them. Who ever perished, 
being innocent? said Eliphaz, boldly, defiantly, re- 
proachfully, cuttingly; or when were the righteous 
cut off? They that plough iniquity, and sow wicked- 
ness, reap the same. No doubt of it, Eliphaz, — not a 
bit of it. Said Jesus: Think you those eighteen, 
upon whom the tower of Siloam fell, were greater 
sinners than all the dwellers in Jerusalem? Nay; 
but except ye repent, ye shall all LiKEwise — in some 
like way of spiritual ruin — perish. The great tower 
of spiritual calamity shall tumble upon you in the 
other world and crush you forever! True, the once 
saved are saved for all eternity. Notwithstanding, 
they need daily lustration; and who knows to a cer- 
tainty, that he is safe from perdition, until the last 
assuring hour? If in Christ, he knows it. What or 
who shall separate? Alas! 'tis easy to be deceived. 
The heart itself is treacherous and unreliable. Satan 
often transforms himself into an Angel of Light. 

-Oftentimes, to win us to our harm, 



The instruments of darkness tell us truths j 
Win us with honest trifles, to betray us 
In deepest consequence. 

I. Mary R. Smith. 



CALAMITIES IN EAETHQUAKES. 191 

The great Apostle was under apprehension, that, 
though he had preached to others, he himself might 
at the last be condemned; and therefor, ever took care 
to keep his body, his exterior and interior life in 
subjection. 

What shall be said of those huge catastrophes, af- 
fecting multitudes of the Godly and ungodly without 
discrimination, — mighty aggregations of calamities, 
of such wide range and vast extent, with such diver- 
sity of havoc, such variety of suffering; — the earth 
rocking to and fro, opening suddenly into frightful 
chasms, into which populous cities tumble; then, by 
as sudden contraction, sealed up from sight forever — 
in a moment, the twinkling of an eye, ere the com- 
bined shriek sent up dies on the air; the upheaval of 
the sacerdotal dead in their cerements as they were 
laid to their last rest a century before;^ the sea reced- 
ing; the land sinking; the return of waters in moun- 
tainous waves, sweeping everything before them into 
interior land; the heavens all the while in a maze of 
motion; the sun obscured; the atmosphere choked 
with blinding, suffocating dust, with nauseous stench 
from the bowels of the earth; the cries of human suf- 
fering,^ of beasts and birds, commingled with the roar 

1. By the earthquake of 1868, the fortified island of Alacran 
was submerged three times, all the garrison perishing. The first 
wave, which rose to about forty feet, was succeeded by three 
others of less height. In the opening of the earth, there were dis- 
closed a large number of mummies, which had been buried in a 
large sandy cemetery, and in a sitting posture, facing the sea. 
Their heads sticking up made the spot look like a field of potatoes. 

2. Parents frequently told me that they heard the voices of their 
little OG€§ crying "Papa! papa!" *' Mamma! mamma!" fainter 



192 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

of the elements; — earthquakes premonitory of the 
Crack of Doom! — events that paralyze the imagina- 
tion in the attempt to grasp and to depict? 

Of such a hurricane of flame, as in a night 

consumed the fairest and the substantial part of 
Chicago, — palaces of merchandise, thesauros of lux- 
uries from the four quarters of the globe; elegant 
structures consecrated to Science, Literature and Art, 
enriched with the contributions of genius, the admi- 
ration of the world; avenues of marble homes; banks 
and court-houses; jails, asylums and hospitals filled 
with criminals, the helpless and the suffering; splen- 
did temples consecrated to God; — a hundred thousand 
homeless, fleeing at midnight from their burning 
homes in the utmost terror for their lives; a surging 
tide of humanity sluicing over bridges, through tun- 
nels, graveyards, to the barren sands of the lake shore 
— into the lake itself, or to the naked prairie; many 
perishing in the vain struggle to escape; women giv- 
ing premature birth to babes, unsheltered on the 
prairie; — all, all in a night, the heart of a splendid 
city "like an insubstantial pageant " gone, with noth- 
ing but a scene of blackened desolation, a disinte- 
grated mass of brick, stone, iron and ashes the re- 
siduum; wealthy citizens brought in an hour from 
affluence to poverty, many more from competence or 
comfort to gaunt destitution, some driven to insanity; 
— the most impressive illustration, as is conceived, 

and fainter till hushed in death, while they were either struggling 
in despair to free themselves, or laboring to remove the fallen 
timber and rocks from their children. — Thom son and Colman on 
an Earthquake in Safet of Syria. 



TtAILROAD CALAMITIES. 193 

that could be furuislied of the fires of the Last Day? 

These, though terrible, and at which the world 
stands aghast, are but casual; they loom up at a dis- 
tance from all save the immediate sufferers; theii* 
very hugeness prevents the mind from being as deeply 
affected by them as by the contiguity of inferior ca- 
lamities, which it can grasp, analyze, dissect, and per- 
haps in some measure apprehend; they do not so 
affect the individual heart as single calamities, which 
are frequent, on a minor scale, and contiguous. 

Three or four sisters nearing their home after a 
summer's absence, in the balmy breath of morning, 
after a night's sweet repose, are roasted to death in a 
locked-up car on a side-track at rest. — A rear car on 
a swiftly speeding train, behind time, as it comes to 
the edge of a deep, rough, precipitous ravine, through 
the fractui'e of an axle, jostled out of the track, 
dislocated from its connection, is hurled over; its 
crowded precious freight of stalwart men, dear wo- 
men, and sweet prattling babes hurled, — hurl within 
hurl, — indiscriminately to the bottom of the abyss, 
with fractured limbs, mashed heads, red-hot stoves, 
dry-splintered seats ; and there they writhe in vain, 
for relief or release, till they are burnt to ashes, or 
Death comes quickly to spare the necessity of total 
cremation. 

A few months after, — 

Und hurre hurre, trapp trapp trapp ! 

Zur rechten und zur linken Hand, 
Vorbei vor ihren Blicken, 
Wie flogen Anger, Haid' und Land ! 
Wie donnerten die Brucken ! 
13 



194 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

"Graut Liebchen auch? . . . 
Hurrah! die Todten reiten schnell! 
Graut Liebchen auch vor Todten?" 
"Ach nein!— Doch lasz die Todten!" i 

just at the center of a sweeping cnrve, round the 
mountainous side of rocks; scenery desolate and wild, 
where the hurl would be most terrific; over a craggier 
precipice into a ravine frightful and fathoms deep; 
in pitchy darkness; in a drizzly rain; victims asleep; 
four cars instead of one; with greater loss of life; 
with greater variety of mangling, — wrenched-off 
limbs, Bcooped-out brains, gouged-out eyes, tufts of 
hair and clots of blood on jagged points of rocks; with 
more horrid consumption of women under burning 
cars; bodies scarcely recognizable; identity lost; a 
dozen or more passengers unaccounted for; circum- 
stances tragic and painful as could be; maimed and 
gashed little children running about for mothers con- 
suming in the flames, parents for children, and friend 
for friend; — and as the appalling climax, unharmed 
passengers, lighted by the flame of the burning cars, 
ghoul-like, pouncing upon the dead and the dying, 
and rifling them of their valuables — one caught in the 
act of filing from a lady's finger her diamond gold 
ring! 

In the morning watch, a lake propeller is suddenly 
engulfed in flames. Cribbed in cabins, all avenues 
of escape cut ofP; wife and dear little ones consuming 
in the fiery furnace, while husbands and fathers, hav- 
ing just risen and gone, are driven away by the sirocco 
of advancing flame from the attempt to return and 
rescue; and step by step are forced at last to take the 

I. Burger's Leonore. 



A "VITAL FORCE." NO GOOD, OMNIPOTENT GOD. 195 

plunge into the icy depths below! Down they go! 
Time for them has ended and eternity has begun ! 

We are such stuff 



As dreams are made of, and our little life 
Is rounded with a sleep. 

Under the pressure of the contemplation of such 
scenes comes the suggestion: "There is no such 
thing as Providence, for Nature proceeds under irre- 
sistible laws, and in this respect the Universe is only 
a vast automatic engine. The vital force which per- 
vades the world is what the illiterate call God." ^ 

I. Draper. ' 

The principle of Good cannot at once and altogether subdue the 
power of Evil, either physical or moral . . , Those who have 
been strengthened in goodness by relying on the sympathizing 
support of a powerful, good Governor of the World, have, I am 
satisfied, never really believed that Governor to be, in the strict 
sense of the term, omnipotent. Thej have always saved His 
goodness at the expense of His power. . . . The author of 
the Sermon on the Mount is assuredly a far more benign Being 
than the author of Nature. . . . Nature is cruel. . . . The 
physical government of the world being full of the things which, 
when done by men, are deemed the greatest enormities, it cannot 
be religious or moral in us to guide our actions by the analogy of 
the course of Nature. — J. S. Mill. 

The loss of the belief in Providence belongs, indeed, to the 
most sensible deprivations which are connected with a renuncia 
tion of Christianity. In the enormous machine of the Universe, 
amid the incessant whirl and hiss of its jagged iron wheels, amid 
the deafening crash of its ponderous stamps and hammers, in the 
midst of this whole terrific commotion, man, a helpless and de- 
fenceless creature, finds himself placed, not secure for a moment, 
that on an imprudent motion, a wheel may not seize and rend him 
or a hammer crush him to powder. This sense of abandonment 
is at first something awful. — Strauss. — Old and New, 

3ee " The Light of Life," pages 10-23. 



196 THE CHBIST IN LIFE. 

These are all blows from the Terrible. Men stand 
aghast. The mind is appalled. Beason staggers. 
Who or What is on the Throne? Who permits, tol- 
erates, when He can prevent? Who can interpret? 
But who shall dare arraign ? Will He not, must He 
not, being God, do right? There must be a better 
world, with no possibility of such dreadful contingen- 
cies; otherwise, life indeed would not be worth living. 
There must come, some time, a satisfactory solution 
of these mysteries. Thou must wait, perturbed, per- 
plexed, it may be, agonized soul. Thou wilt have 
eternity for the apprehension. 

The darling expectations of believers are often 
blasted by the loss of loved ones, in unexpected mo- 
ments; not so much of the aged who are ripe for the 
Harvester, waiting for the summons, ready to be 
sheaved in the garners of the Lord; or of invalids 
consigned in anticipation to the grasp of the insa- 
tiable Destroyer; or even of those who, after long 
and exhaustive struggles with disease, have yielded 
in the unequal conflict; for there has been time ade- 
quate for acquiescence and submission. But main 
props, darlings, central objects of attraction in 
precious circles are taken away. There are circum- 
stances and occasions so strange and mysterious, that 
the bereaved find themselves totally unprepared for 
them. 

Out of such circumstances come the plaint and 
the wail: Of all others, he, the least, could have 
been spared; if he had died at home, and not abroad; 
if my own hands could have ministered to his last 
necessities; if I could have smoothed his dying pil- 



SORROWS FOR THE DEATH OF LOVED ONES. 197 

Jew; if he had died of other diseases; if he had passed 
into the eternal world with unclouded intellect; if he 
could have spoken to me of the serenity of his soul, 
while quivering in the embrace of death; if he could 
have referred to his unquenched and unquenchable 
love for me at the last moment; if he had passed into 
the skies with hallelujahs on his lips, — it had been 
well. I should submissively have quaffed the potion 
proffered to my lips, bitter as was the draught. Alas! 
poor soul, thou would' st not have willingly received 
it. — If he had been taken away in early childhood, 
ere sin had stained the purity of his soul; if he had 
ripened into manhood; if she had blossomed into 
womanhood, — I would not have murmured. But I 
have given years of toil and care to physical and men- 
tal development. Money has not been spared. He 
had just attained the summit of his ambition. He is 
cut down in the meridian of his strength. The sun 
went down when it was yet day. In the budding- 
time of her beauty, — just as the petals began to un- 
fold and the fragrance to diffuse, she has been 
blighted! It has been in vain! It has been waste ! 
Tried soul! 'twas not in vain. 'Twas not waste. 'Tis 
all right, — all true, eternal gain. 

With silence only as their benediction, 

God's angels come, 
Where, in the shadow of a great affliction, 

The soul sits dumb.i 

Yet would we say, what every heart approveth — 

Our Father's will. 
Calling to Him the dear ones whom He loveth, 

Is mercy still. 

1. Light sorrows speak; great grief is dumb. — Shakspeare. 
Curse leves loquuntur, ingentes stupent. — Seneca. 



198 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

Sometimes one calamity treads swiftly on the heels 
of another; they come 

-not single spies, 



But in battalions ! 

as they did upon Job: first, the loss of property, then 
of children, then bodily affliction, then spiritual dark- 
ness, — culminating in the last desperate assault of 
the Evil One, through perhaps some bosom friend: 
"Curse God, and die." 
These are mysteries, mainly inexplicable Here. 

Blind unbelief is sure to err, 

And scan His work in vain. 
God is His own Interpreter, 

And He will make it plain. 

Often, worldly acquisitions, the result of frugality 
and incessant toil for years, or of ancestral husbandry, 
suddenly, or by instalments, are taken away in an in- 
comprehensible manner; not through any apparent 
lack of capacity, sagacity, personal attention or pru- 
dent management, so far as can be discerned; some- 
times, notwithstanding their exercise. Not a high 
order of talent is requisite for money-getting, or for 
money-keeping, — only supreme self-seeking, selfish- 
ness, niggardliness combined with cunning, over- 
reaching with unscrupulosity. Worldlings turn their 
backs on those who do not succeed. — "I never have 
anything to do with an unlucky man," said John Ja- 
cob Astor. "I have seen many clever men, very 
clever men, who had not shoes to their feet. I never 
act with them." — It cannot be comprehended. It 
seems strange, irreconcilable, hard; strange when the 
poverty-stricken are in debt, have families, wives and 



THE SOEEOWS OF INAPPEECIATION. 199 

precious little ones on their hands; incomprehensible, 
that all laudable efforts to extricate themselves, and 
to meet such necessities, are thwarted. It is strange, 
incomprehensible. There is no explanation Here. 
We must wait. We shall have to wait, probably, un- 
til we get up yonder. We must trust, trust to the 
last, in the darkest hour. Patience! bewildered, 
baffled soul: Wait! 

Good men have been and are, even now, shut up, 
in the providence of God, by being misapprehended, 
incomprehended, misunderstood. Poor Elijah, after 
the manifestation of his heroic zeal in the destruction 
of the false prophets, fled to the southern extremity 
of Judea, and to a day's journey in the wilderness 
beyond, safe, as he hoped, from the threatened ven- 
geance of Jezebel, and cried out, that he might die. 
"It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for 
now I am not better than my fathers." Jeremiah ex- 
claimed: "I was a derision to all my people, and a 
song all the day. Woe is me my mother, that thou 
hast borne me a man of strife, and a man of conten- 
tion to the whole earth ! I have neither lent on usury, 
nor men have lent to me on usury, yet every one of 
them doth curse me." Centuries elapsed, before all 
the shadows and obloquy, which wicked contempo- 
raries cast upon the good names of Tyndale, Wickliffe 
and others, passed away. How bitter it is to live, not 
merely to be persecuted, slandered, but to be miscon- 
ceived, misinterpreted, misunderstood! Thus God, 
incomprehensibly in their day, shuts up good men — 
some of the very best men, — shuts them up, as they 
suppose, from the influence they hoped to wield for 



200 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

good. Shuts them up, is it said? If they could 
speak to us from those holy heights they have as- 
cended, they would doubtless say to us, that their 
souls, therefrom, had been brought into a large place. 
"Now, we see. Then, we could not understand." 

God sometimes shuts up His childi-en from a reali- 
zation of their well conceived plans for usefulness; 
cuts short their career in one place and sends them 
into another; lays them aside by disease ere they 
have reached their prime or maturity, — literally shuts 
them out from the privilege and the opportunity for 
the exercise of those gifts which, by insuperable spir- 
itual obstacles in their own souls, or, denied use, are 
as a burning fire shut up in their bones. Sometimes a 
part of His design in the shutting up can be subse- 
quently discerned. There are dungeons spiritual, as 
there are material. John Bunyan was shut up in 
Bedford Jail for twelve years from preaching the 
Gospel. The prison to his soul, — -repression of his 
aspirations, denial to use of his gifts, and improve- 
ment of opportunities, was infinitely more ada- 
mantine than granite walls. How must the fire from 
supposed lost opportunities have burnt into his bones 
for that dreary period! Doubtless the world would 
not have been blessed with the "Progress," had he 
not been thus shut up. Excruciating must it have 
been to the Apostles and primitive disciples, to be 
deprived of the opportunity of preaching the Truth, 
when they realized that the world, at the Nadir of 
darkness, was without God; that there was so much 
to do and so little time to do it; such an account to 
render. There is no plaint more affecting than Mil- 



THEY SERVE WHO STAND AND WAIT. 201 

ton's — faithfully delineative and expressive of the 
sorrows of all "shut up" souls: — 

When I consider how my hght is spent 

Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide, 

And that one talent which is death to hide, 

Lodg'd with ine useless, though my soul inore bent 

To serve therewith my Maker, and present 

My true account, lest He returning chide ; 

"Doth God exact day-labor, light denied? " 

I fondly ask : But Patience, to prevent 

That murmur, soon replies: "God doth not need 

Either man's work, or his own gifts ; who best 

Bear His inild yoke, they serve Him best: His state 

Is Kingly ; thousands at His bidding speed, 

And post o'er land and ocean without rest: 

They also serve, who only stand and wait. 

Stand, then, shut up Christian believer, and wait! 
All inexplicable things must, in the Hereafter, be 
made plain. "Stand," then, child of privation, disap- 
pointment, sorrow, suffering, and "wait." Isaiah 
xlix:23, Prov. xx:22, Ps. xxv:5, Isaiah xxx:18, Ps. 
xxvii:14, Ps. xxxvii:7. Lam. iii: 25-26, Isaiah xl:31, 
Isaiah xxxiii: 2, Ps. xl: 1, Isaiah xxv: 9.^ 

I. There are seasons, when to be still demands immeasurably 
higher strength than to act. Composure is often the highest re- 
sult of power. ... Is there no power put forth, when a man, 
stripped of his property, of the fruits of a life's labors, quells dis- 
content and gloomy forebodings, serenely and patiently returns to 
the tasks which Providence assigns.^ — Dr. Charming. 

The great difficulty of life appears to be the art of sitting still. 
Wait! — Wait! — Ah, those two words, what salvation is in them! 
You can never do better than act them out once every hour. — 
Remmiscences of Thoiiglit and Feeling. 

In thy own . . . perplexities, do thou thyself but hold thy 
tongue for one day: on the morrow, how much clearer are thy 
purposes and duties; what wreck and rubbish have these mute 



202 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

Jesus came to manifest His sympathy and to ex- 
tend help, not only in all such signal hours of dark- 
ness, which "shall be many," — in those extraordinary 
spiritual conflicts which rage between the Devil and 
the soul for the mastery; those Hours of hours to 
the believer, and to all souls; in those extraordinary 
and mysterious allotments of Providence, — but in the 
ordinary struggles of life; in the common heart-aches, 
sorrows and disappointments; in all the various ills 
that Flesh is heir "to; for " He was tried in all points 
as we are." 

How many and various are these maladies and ills ! 
There is spiritual depression, constitutional with 
some. It may be from physical exhaustion; the nat- 
ural rebound from anticipation to disappointment, 
from elation to depression; the result of disordered 
digestion; or may spring from pecuniary reverses, 
from real or imaginary evils, from conflict with be- 
setting sins, or the petty machinations of the great 
Adversary. 

The seemingly propitious conditions of the indi- 
vidual yesterday, to-day have not changed to adverse ; 

workmen within thee swept away, when intrusive noises were 
shut out! — Carlyle. 

Impatience is an infallible sign of weakness. — Ecce Deus. 

No time of seeming inactivity is laid upon you by God without 
a just reason. It is God calling upon you to do His business, by 
ripening in quiet all your powers for some higher sphere of activ- 
ity which is abovit to be opened to you. The eighteen years at 
Nazareth, what was their result.? A few years of action, but of 
action concentrated, intense, infinite ; not one word, not one deed, 
which did not tell, and which will not tell, upon the Universe for- 
ever. — Stopford A. Brooke, 



SPIBITUAL DEPRESSION — ITS ORIGIN. 203 

if they could be seen, as the Omniscient discerns, 
they might have become in reality more auspicious. 
Yet they seem otherwise. The poor soul is depressed. 
The seeming is as disastrous in its effects as the real. 
The origin of this depression and apprehension 
often is occult. It cannot be detected by the closest 
analysis in any palpable set of circumstances. It 
may be spiritual altogether. It may be from a touch 
of the Fallen One, — a chill of spiritual death wafted 
from the Pit of Despair. From whatever source, the 
suffering is real, and to be .commiserated. The suf- 
ferers are to be dealt with tenderly. Though an en- 
lightened will and a purified conscience may struggle 
to reassure the sinking soul, it is not always possible 
to do it. God alone can. 

Alone, amid life's griefs and perils, 

The stoutest soul may quail : 
Left to its own unaided efforts, 

The strongest arm may fail. 

Sometimes the soul is in darkness, because its 
pleadings, as it avers, it supposes, are not heard and 
answered. Poor soul! they are heard and answered, 
but not in thy way. How is it possible they should 
not be heard? Is there no God? Is He not a Fa- 
ther? Is He dead? Does He not hear? Is He a 
Being afar off? He is nigh thee, — even in thy heart. 
Can He be false to His averments? Can He take 
pleasure in the miseries, the disappointments of His 
children? It cannot be. If any logic is persuasive 
and conclusive, that from analogy is. The Savior's 
employment of it was so impressive! How compactly 
welded! how irresistible it was! Thine own child 



204 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

pleads for indulgence, which thou knowest will be 
positively injurious to him, and, therefore, thou re- 
fusest to gratify. He realizes it not. He acquiesces 
not. The reason and the reasonableness of thy course 
he dost not see. Dost thou, if thou art a wise, firm 
parent, yield? Never, once. Thou indulgest in other 
ways. Thou seekest to substitute an innocuous grat- 
ification for a noxious one. Thou endeavorest to 
purify, elevate old tastes and to develop new ones, 
and for nobler objects. That is, if thou art a firm, 
wise parent, thou wilt do it. When thou comest to 
be hoary-headed, or to lie in thy grave, that child may 
bless thee, that thou did'st deny him. Thus in the 
coming ages of thy experience, — in this world it may 
be, surely in the next, — thou wilt bless God for His 
denial to thee of what thou asked. Dost thou not 
now, in thy past brief experience, thank Him that He 
did deny thee ? Many things now dark, will ihen be 
made plain. 

Perhaps thou repliest: "I have not been able to 
see it in that light." "O that I could." Poor child; 
for it seems thou art but a child in the Christian life, 
or dull, indocile, intractable, not a robust, fully-de- 
veloped man, a stalwart Christian; or thou would' st 
not be so insubmissive and complaining. Hast thou 
thyself a child? The reasonableness, rightfulness, 
utility of his request are luminous as light to Him. 
He is restive, impatient. But thou teachest him to 
be patient and submissive; that he must trust his fa- 
ther; must wait for apprehension. Then he will see. 
So must thou trust and wait. Perhaps thou shalt 
see hereafter in this life — assuredly in the next. 



THE LOUD WILL PKOVIDE. 205 

Whether thou wilt or not, thou must be, in such Pres- 
ence, still, and wait. 

Man's weakness waiting upon God 

Its end can never miss, 
For men on earth no work can do 

More angel-like than this.i 

Thou hast lost a loved one, round whom thy heart 
clung. " If He had taken another! and "at a different 
time!" and "had prepared me for the bereavement!" 
Shall He not do what He pleases with His own? Will 
He not do right? Is not His time the best? 

Thou hast been long pleading for competence, if 
not for wealth. Thou thinkest thou would'st be a 
wiser and better man if thou had'st it. The Father 
thinks not, it is evident, or it would be bestowed. 
Poverty does seem to dessicate the juices of life. It 
should ennoble, sweeten, purify all souls, as it did 
Paul's. Thou thinkest thy prayers have not been 
heard, because the answers have not come. They 
came, but not as thou asked, nor in thy way. 

In some way or other the Lord will provide ; 
It may not be my way, 
It may not be thy way, 
And yet in His oivn way 
The Lord will provide. 

Richer blessings, perhaps antagonistic to what thou 
desirest, will be, are sent in lieu, in disguise. They 
have been coming to thee, repining soul! every day: 
thou hast not discerned them. One poor soul, pos- 
sessing in abundance the things that thou desirest, in 
contemplation of its luxurious condition, once thus 
addressed itself: — 

" Soul ! thou hast much goods laid up for thyself, 

I. Faber, 



206 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

many years. Take thine ease, eat, drink and be 
merry." 

"Fool!" said God. 

The very night of the day of its self-gratulation, 
God "required," summoned it to His Bar. Nothing 
of its great abundance was taken with it. That was 
all left behind. Not even the shroud that enveloped 
the soulless body had a pocket. Sad, ghastly, trag- 
ical! Nothing conceivable could be more so. Yet 
there are many like, passing into the eternal world ^ 
everyday. The epic conclusion was : "So is he, that 
layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward 
God." Would' st thou be such an one? Would' st 
thou have such an end? 

Weeping, repining, cast-down, bewildered soul! 
Look up ! 

Our pathway oft is wet with tears, 

Our sky with clouds o'ercast, 
And worldly cares and worldly fears 

Go with us to the last: — 

Not to the last! God's word hath said, 

Could we but read aright ; 
O Pilgrim ! lift in hope thy head ; 

At eve, it shall be light! 

The soul of Jesus in Gethsemane "was exceedingly 
sorrowful unto death." All possible sorrow in all 
possible intensity was compressed in such utterance. 
There will be Gethsemane hours to all believers. 
Will He not sympathize in such? Will He not? 
Will He abandon a sinking soul? Will He not un- 

I. We see what God thinks of riches by the people He gives 
them to. — Dean Swift. 

"Ah, David! these are the things that make death terrible." — 
Johnson to Garrick., -when the latter showed him his grand house. 



PRAYER SUBORDINATE TO GOD'S WILL. 207 

dergird it with the everlasting arms of His love? 
Trust thou Him, then, tried but distrustful one. Cast 
thy burdens, all thy sorrows upon Him. Thou shalt 
find Him the unfailing, the sui*e, the thorough sym- 
pathizer. Wilt thou trust Him? 

On His human side, it seemed essential that the 
impending Cup of Suffering should pass away from 
Him unquaffed, untouched. He therefore earnestly 
prayed it might, and thrice: — "if it hQ possible,^' cried 
He, — "possible" with the arrangements of the Divine 
Will: "Nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt." 

Such acquiescence and submission ought to be sig- 
nificant to disciples, in their cries to the Father for 
the bestowment of certain things deemed blessings, 
and for the removal of certain other things regarded 
burdens, — very grievous troubles, which it does not 
seem possible could be longer borne. Let the cry 
go up ; 

Not what we wish, but what we want, 

Let mercy still supply: 
The good we ask not, Father, grant, 

The ill we ask, deny.i 

When, therefore. Christians pray for temporal bless- 
ings besides food or raiment — for the removal of cer- 
tain troublous states or circumstances, they must do 
so in subordination to the Father's will; to be be- 
stowed or to be withheld, to be continued, or to be 
withdrawn, as may be deemed for their weal. Giving 
doth not impoverish Him, for the Universe is His, 
the silver and the gold, the cattle on a thousand hills. 
The child of God is heir to all things. The Father 

I. Herrick. 



208 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

has higher bestowments for His children than 
material weal. Man is left to work out his own 
destiny, to choose the good or to reject it. Such val- 
ue, as men attach to the material, is more relative 
than absolute, circumstantial than intrinsic. What- 
ever it has is chiefly derived from the energy, indus- 
try, skill of producers or possessors. Comparative 
scarcity, difficult access, cost of mining and reduction, 
more than intrinsic worth and beauty, give gold its 
value. Occupancy, tillage, nearness to market, to 
populous centers, give chief value to lands by acres, 
to lots by feet. Should Providence take from a wise 
pecuniary manager to enrich others, it might be to 
foster improvidence, shiftlessness, idleness in them 
and to stay their righteous development. It is dis- 
cipline, development, thus, purification, elevation, en- 
largement, thus, fittedness, preparedness for the celest- 
ial life that God has in design; not ease, luxuriousness, 
freedom from trial, material possessions that the soul 
cannot take with it to the other side of the Hiver. 
Thou shouldst, ere this, disciple! have learned the 
fact. Sometimes, "the wealth of the sinner is laid 
up for the just," — not ordinarily in their time. God 
is patient to the last. His mills grind slowly as men 
count slowness, yet to the end. Ordinarily, men will 
thrive pecuniarily, as they are wise, industrious, fru- 
gal. If they are otherwise, they must accept the 
sequel in poverty and want. There is no escape from 
results of any violation of the conditions of material 
well-being, and of worldly prosperity. If they break 
law, or their ancestors have done it before them, 
prayer does not repair or stay consequences of the 



WEALTH A BLESSING OR CURSE, AS USED. 209 

violation. "Gravitation will not cease when they go 
by." Not that it is not possible for God to do it. Not 
that He may not, sometimes, in His inscrutable wisdom 
and in an incomprehensible manner, do it. Ordinarily, 
it is certain He does not do it. If thou choosest the 
world, thou must take it with its vicissitudes, its chances, 
its ultimate unsatisfyingness, its inevitable sorrows. 
It will prove an ashy sceptre in thy hands, the shadow 
of a crown on thy head. Thou must be content with 
thy deliberately chosen portion. If thou choosest God 
thou must take with Him the tribulation He sends, 
when needed, upon the children He loves. If thou 
art faithful unto death. He will give thee a crown of 
life. In the world, ye shall have tribulation. "Whom 
the Lord loves, He chastens." Every one that hath 
left houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or moth- 
er, or wife, or children, or lands for my name's sake, 
shall receive a hundred-fold, and shall inherit ever- 
lasting life ! Matth. xix : 29. 

Wealth is a great boon, — a blessing or curse to its 
possessor and to mankind, as it is used. It may be the 
means to the achievement of the best and greatest ends, 
spiritual or material. It may blight or beautify, debase 
or exalt. As is person, intellect, education, social posi- 
tion or official station, so is wealth, a talent to be 
consecrated to the holiest purposes. Its possession 
cannot be otherwise than conjoined with responsibil- 
ity commensurate. The Parable of the Talents, illus- 
trative of individual responsibility, — ixdffrw xard r-qv 
idiav dovafitv, — discloses in sentences curt, compressed, 
energic, the terrible end of the unprofitable servant. 

14 



210 - THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

The mere disuse of a single talent, — 'tis significant 
that it was the one, not the five or the ten, — not put 
to use, not waste or debasing expenditure, will bring 
the possessor ultimately into "outer darkness," where 
is Aveeping and gnashing of teeth. Of lohat darkness 
is such imagery prefiguration? The corrupting in- 
fluence of unsanctified wealth does not terminate 
with the ruin of its individual possessor. It descends 
to corrupt to "the last days." "Ye have heaped 
treasure together for the last days." "Last days!" 
Thy last days, or the world's, or the Crack of Doom, 
as thou would' st have it, — Rich One! with thy gold 
and silver, that "is cankered" for the want of holy 
consecration and use. 

One of the most painful experiences to souls yearn- 
ing for intercommunion with the congenial in thought 
and purpose, the good, the pure and the true, is the 
realization that there are, everywhere, impassable 
barriers to such intimacy. Few souls know each 
other. It is so difficult to apprehend and to be ap- 
prehended. Consciousness of imperfection, remem- 
brances of confidence betrayed, have engendered cau- 
tion and distrust. Intercourse is guarded. Familiarity 
is discouraged. The soul is driven in upon itself for 
companionship, — into the recesses of solitude, the 
fastnesses of isolation, to he alone. Alone! None 
but heavily-burdened souls know what it is to be 
alone. Jesus knew it. 

Thou must walk on, however men upbraid thee, 
With Him who trod the wine-press all alone; 

Thou wilt not find one human hand to aid thee. 
One human soul to comprehend thine own. 

Indifference to the social as well as to the material 



BAERIEES TO SOCIAL INTIMACY. 211 

interests and necessities of others ensues. An armed 
neutrality is maintained in personal intercourse. 
Each one seeks to seclude himself, to retreat to the 
innermost recesses of his being. Thus far, and no 
farther, is the intimation given. No heart is placed 
close to another. There is always more or less re- 
serve. There is the still more insurmountable barrier 
to social intimacy between the sexes. Men and wo- 
men are made for the society of each other. They 
are complemental reciprocally of each other. Yet 
intercommunion between them is not tolerated, save 
in wedded pairs. Doubtless it is not safe otherwise. 
Even many mated ones are interiorly aliens and 
strangers to each other. 

How many such aspirations are repressed, aye crushed 
out of souls, by the consciousness of their impossible 
realization on earth! They spring from the casual 
interview, in the social circle, the Christian congrega- 
tion, in the same pew, singing the same song of praise, 
listening to the same benediction; with wants and ne- 
cessities voiced in the same representative prayer, — 
lifted heavenward by the same aspirations. Is there 
scene more august, more redolent of Heaven, than a 
congregation of reconciled ones brought together, not 
only by the elective affinity of mind, culture and 
taste, but by the common love of the Christ, — sub- 
scribing to the same Faith, cherishing the same 
Hope, sitting, singing, praying together? Yet how 
little they know of each other ! How spiritually iso- 
lated they stand! Eyes may meet, hand may take 
hand, and salutation respond to salutation, yet there 
may be no ventured touch of soul, contiguity of heart. 



212 THE CHKIST IN LIFE. 

Will it be always thus? Surely, not in the Heav- 
enly State. May it not be hoped that some, at least 
of these barriers to intercommunion will be removed 
in the latter day glory? Is there no significance to 
certain interviews of Jesus? Has any impropriety 
been detected in the converse with the erring one at 
the well of Samaria, or in those oft resorts to the 
home of Mary and Martha? Will there be no period 
in the future, when disciples of Jesus may be able to 
attain to such self-mastery, that they can enjoy such 
intimacies without injury in fact, or basis for injurious 
imputation? ^ 

The sympathy of Jesus led Him to minister every- 
where to wretchedness and want. It moved Him to 
go into the house where dead children lay, that He 
might quicken them to the embrace of parents again ; 
to arrest the bier on its funeral march, that the only 
son might be restored to the widow mother; to go 
with the bewildered sisters to the sepulchre, and to 
weep; to summon, under pressure and urgency of 
sympathetic emotion, the dead one to come out from 

I. On earth the communion of one human mind with another 
is profoundly mysterious, and it is far more rare than we imagine. 
Intercourse by looks, words and acts is universal ; but real mental 
fellowship, communion of intellect with intellect, conscience wi 
conscience, heart with heart, soul with soul, is excessively rare. It 
is always and necessarily imperfect. The real and great differ- 
ences between one soul and another, and the consequent propor- 
tional defect of sympathy between them, mental and moral in- 
competence and poverty on the one side or the other, or both in 
different respects, constitutional or acquired reserve, shame, pride 
and fear, necessarily prevent the entireness and the freedom of 
communion.— Z'/ze Christ of History. 



SYMPATHY UNIVERSAL AND WITHOUT LIMIT. 213 

the grasp of death to their embrace once more. '* Be- 
hold, how He loved him!" said the Jews. But, to 
reach His sympathetic heart, 'twas not necessary to 
bring Him into the presence of the sheeted dead, 
with heart-stricken survivors looking in the agony of 
giief to Him for sympathy, — to secure from Him the 
electric response : "(ro ihy ivay.'' "Be it unto thee 
as thou hast asked.'' "Thy faiih has saved thee.'' 
"Thy child shall live." There were living dead, or 
those wasting to death, to whom very death would have 
been a relief; there were blind, and paralytics, and 
lepers, and demoniacs; more: the multitude that 
surged about Him, or studiously avoided Him, were 
dead in trespasses and sins. His heart was touched 
with their sorrows. He yearned for their eternal 
weal. He could not pass the frail woman at the well 
of Samaria, without letting His heart gush out in 
memorable sympathy. It led Him to court associa- 
tion with Publicans and outcasts. The agonies of 
His last hour could not repress the manifestation of 
His deathless interest even in thieves, co-partners in 
physical suffering; and for His military crucifiers: 
"Father! forgive them, for they know not what they 
do." His sway with the hearts of men is, therefore, 
no mystery. Those who have not recognized the di- 
vinity of His Person have been moved by His divine 
sympathy. He still lives in God; lives also to sym- 
pathize, as we are assured and trust, with Divine 
power to aid; in the immediate presence and grasp of 
all infinite resources to help. From this trust comes 
this deathless power over souls who have believed on 
Him. Having been tried to the uttermost, He is able 



214 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

to sympathize with those who are tried, to any 
extremity. 

Now, if a man, a mere philanthropist or humani- 
tarian, much more a professed minister of Jesus, who 
undertakes to speak in His name, would have real, 
permanent influence with men, he must become a 
deep sympathizer with them. A fragile, a miserably 
fragile representative of his Master is he, who, desti- 
tute of this putting one's heart in the heart position 
of another, undertakes professionally, as a life-work, 
to teach in His name. Such one will fail in the de- 
sirable and great end of his mission. Mere patriots, 
philanthropists, humanitarians, will have greater in- 
fluence among their fellows, on account of this large- 
hearted sympathy, than disciples of Jesus without it. 
Garibaldi, politically rash as he may have been 
deemed; skeptical in belief, as is affirmed; revolting 
from the Romanistic illustration of Christianity, to 
rest upon the conclusions of a stony-eyed and stony- 
hearted Keason, — Garibaldi, far from being Christian 
in domestic life, has wielded a profounder sway over 
the masses of Italy, indeed of Europe, than all the 
Priests and churches in it. Popish or Protestant, be- 
cause his sympathy for his oppressed fellow-country- 
men was great, — indeed, for the oppressed of all na- 
tionalities; for he found time to waft a sympathetic 
word over continents and oceans to them.^ 

Fisher of men ! thou must have the largest possible 

I. Man is one, 

And he hath one great heart. It is thus we feel, 
With a gigantic throb athwart the sea. 
Each other's rights and wrongs; thus are we men. 

— Festus. 



SYMrATHY IN THE CLEKGY ESSENTIAL. 215 

measure of putting thy heart in the heart position of 
another. This love current bearing on to their Heav- 
enly mission all other ministerial gifts, must ever 
sluice through thy soul. The memory of what He 
has done for thee must ever be an august presence. 
The deeper is the degradation of thy fellow-man, the 
more wan will be his woe. Thy soul must go down 
and take hold of his and lift it up. Though rich in 
other graces, destitute of this, thou canst proffer but 
a dry morsel to a soul-hungered one. Though elo- 
quent in tongue, thou wilt be but mere sounding 
brass or a clanging cymbal. It is said apologetically: 
there are constitutional differences. True, if thou art 
frigid, unsympathetic, or have educated thyself to be 
so, thou lackest a primal, essential qualification, and 
perhaps have mistaken thy vocation. Certainly, 
Grace can soften, educe to tenderness and sympathy 
the haughty, chilly heart; otherwise, there is no place 
for it in apostleship. The world is filled with sorrow. 
Each soul has its portion of bitterness. When men 
pause in their secular career, and go to the House for 
Divine service, they go for sympathy, solace, comfort, 
consolation. Give it to them, then. Some, doubtless, 
may be there with burdened hearts. Their darkness 
has not yet culminated. They have not yet entered 
into the shades of their Gethsemane. The larger 
portion will come wearied with their antagony in the 
world; with equanimity disturbed; with nerves trem- 
ulous, if not exacerbated in the sharp encounter. The 
cares of life, the deceitfulness of riches, the lust of 
other things preoccupy their minds. Some will be 
about to sink in the apparently hopeless grip of Grace 



216 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

upon selfishness in their souls, — selfishness aroused 
and stimulated to demonstration in self-defense, by 
the lawless, thoughtless, inconsiderate self-seeking of 
others. For six days, all the lower principles of their 
nature have been stirred to activity in their turbid 
depths. To pure intellectual excitations; to the cul- 
ture of the heart; to the engendering of spiritual emo- 
tions, they have been total strangers. The race and 
the battle have been for the world. The strain upon 
their Christian constitution has been fearful. Out of 
the depths the cry comes: Rest! Deliver us, our 
God! Mercifully grant us rest, temporary respite at 
least, from these combined assaults of the World, the 
Flesh and the Devil. Our nerves are shattered in 
this hurly-burly of life. We are troubled on every 
side, and in despair. We are dumb. Our Christian 
faith is paralyzed at the amazing prosperity of the 
wicked, and the equally incomprehensible adversity 
of the righteous. Thou hidest Thyself 

-so wondrouslj, 



As though there were no God ; 

And Thou art least seen, 

when all the powers 

Of ill are most abroad. 
Ill masters good ; good seems to change 

To ill with greatest ease ; 
And, worst of all, the good with good 

Is at cross purposes. 

Doubts do come, 

if God hath kept 

His promises to men. 

Bring us into the Holy Chamber of Thy House, O 
God! that we may be able to comprehend, somewhat 
at least, the mysteries of Thy Providence and of Thy 



THE TEMPEST-TOSSED IN CONGREGATIONS. 217 

Grace, in Thy dealing with men. Let ns be able to 
say, through spiritual apprehension: "Surely, Thou 
did'st set the wicked in slippery places. How are 
they brought into desolation as in a moment!" 
"Thou casted'st them down to destruction." "The 
righteous shall not be moved. They shall be held 
in everlasting remembrance." Come and dwell with 
us, this one day, if no more. Fortify us by Thy 
strength in our extremity; otherwise we shall fail and 
fall in the next six days' encounter. 

There sit some in those pews, in the maze of ques- 
tionings and doubts. The pall of despair has settled 
on their souls. Scarcely a star, perhaps not even the 
Star of Bethlehem, is seen in the firmament of their 
spiritual night. There sit others, clad in the habili- 
ments of grief. Sorrows have come upon their hearts 
and into their homes. There's a poor, solitary sinner, 
stranger in that congregation, whose soul all the week 
has been quaking under the thunderings and light- 
nings of Sinai; having failed, as yet, to get to Calvary 
— to lie down and to leave there its dreadful weight 
of guilt. There's another poor, tempest-tossed soul. 
Demons have entered it, to drive, if possible, to the 
suicidal act, that thus may end the weariness of life, — 
a quietus be put by a bare bodkin to the reproaches 
of a guilty consciences, the ceaseless gnawings of the 
"worm that never dies." No fiction is this: 'tis dread 
reality: tragically enacted daily! Every day booms 
the announcement — 

"One more unfortunate." 

There's another, — a child of God, it is hoped. All 
the forces of Gehenna have combined in assault upon 



218 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

him. He's like a ship in a storm. The winds are 
howling, the waves run mountains high; not a star is 
out; the darkness can be felt; the masts are going by 
the board; and the gallant vessel staggers, premoni- 
tory of the final plunge. It is a night of horrors, 

With shrieking fiends in the crowded air, 
And fiends on the swarming sea.i 

Nor is this fiction. Many and many a poor soul has 
been thus tempest-tossed. David was thus in peril, 
when he forgot there was an all-seeing God. Peter 
was in the trough of this tempestuous sea, when he 
denied his Master. E*en Paul, the intrepid, had 
apprehension of that Hour of hours to the tried 
one, when he charged his Ephesian brethren to put 
on the whole armor of God, that they might be able 
to stand against the wiles of the Devil. And the 
greater portion are without hope and God. Insen- 
sate, they have come in, perhaps merely to kill time ; 
perhaps to be instructed; perhaps to drown the voice 
of conscience, by seeming to give heed to its moni- 
tions. There they are, — tried men and women. No 
one can say, whether they will all appear again in 
that House. 

Out of the depths of these many-conditioned hearts 
go up cries, tears, sighs and aspirations. We beseech 
Thee, O God, have mercy upon us! Son of God, 
have mercy upon us! Holy Spirit, have mercy upon 
us! Representative of the Christ! thou wilt often 
stand in such presence, — between the living and the 

I. Kathrina. — Holland. 

The sea is lonely, the sea is dreary, 

The sea is restless and uneasy. — Lowell. 



WHAT CAN BE DONE TO RESCUE THE FALLEN? 219 

dead. Who is sufficient for these things ? Ah ! who ? 
Art thou? Jesus alone can make thee. Hast thou 
been a sufferer of any kind? Bless God for it, for 
sympathy comes through suffering. One must suffer 
to be truly fitted for effectual sympathy with the suf- 
fering. Go, then, to that gathered company of the 
tried; — from thy closet; with the love of Christ; with 
a double portion of the Spirit; with lips touched by 
its fire; with faith to lift thee and them to God; en- 
deavoring to make, somewhat, their sorrows thine ; to 
bear, somewhat, their burdens ; to apprehend, some- 
what, their spiritual state. Get by faith into the 
presence of the great Intercessor, God Himself, and 
thou may'st prevail for them and thee. If not, what 
will become of them and thee? 

What can be done to rescue the multitude of young 
women in all large cities, "whose feet go down to 
death, whose steps take hold on Sheol ? " Profli- 
gate young men, — the greater sinners, — to some extent 
are reached. These are not. They are passed by on 
the other side by the virtuous of their own sex, who 
only, perhaps, can safely go to them. Can any thing 
be done? This is the unsolved problem of modern 
Christian effort. Something ought to be done, and 
that which is effectual. Difficulties hedge it about, 
but the hedge must be broken through. In the effort 
to rescue imperilled, perdition-driven souls, there is 
no time to waste in consideration of etiquette, and 
query about proprieties. The instincts of humanity 
plead. The memorable example of Jesus has been 
ever urging. Thou should' st be willing to put in peril 
thy reputation, believer, if thou art able, through di- 



220 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

yine help, to keep thyself unspotted, that thou may'st 
be permitted to do something effectual for their rescue. 
Will there never come a time, when believers, with a 
modicum of their Master's purity, at least fore-armed 
with a portion of His divine strength, may deem it 
safe, — an imperative requirement, to seek these fallen 
ones, to entreat them, to direct them to the "Friend 
of sinners," to say to them in His name: Hast thou 
fallen? Lift up thy soul! There is still hope for 
thee. Thou canst rise again. Let no one reproach 
thee. I do not. Go : sin no more ! 

When the stars are setting one by one, in silent 
procession, to their rest behind the Western sky, no 
spectacle is sadder than that of these forlorn ones,- - 
young women, — somebody's daughter, somebody's sis- 
ter, some one whom somebody ought to love, rescue, if 
possible ; — nothing is sadder than the sight of these 
forlorn ones in their death tramp on the Broadways 
of our great cities: — 

Faces, terrible faces, 

With a tale unsaid ; 
Fixed human faces, 

Whence the light has fled ; 
Faces, and ever faces, 

Where the soul is dead,i 

once sweet, innocent ones, guileless as thine own, 
whom a gracious Providence has hitherto preserved 
from such fate. Wilt thou not feel? Wilt thou not 
do? If not, then, "inasmuch as ye did it not unto 
the least of one of these, ye did it not to me." 

Houses of Refuge there are for such. They are 
good to the end of their capacity. But they are not 

I. Rob't Buchanan. 



SYMPATHY FOR OTHERS REQUISITE. 221 

adequate to meet the necessities of those fallen ones, 
either as to numbers or specific wants. The Chris- 
tian family is the natural and ordained home for such. 
Doubtless, comparatively few families are thus called 
to receive them. Many cannot, ought not, — from re- 
gard to their children. But it is believed, that there 
are enough, not so conditioned, who can and who ought 
to receive them, and to be patient with them to the 
last. The inquiry is to every Christian family: art 
thou called? If so, separate thyself to this work. To 
it some, evidently, are summoned. Search, determine 
whether the summons is not to thee! 

Brother! we must have faith, in order to take hold 
of God's sympathy for us manifested through His 
Son, and that we may in turn extend it to our kind, or 
we and they are lost for helpfulness and hope. These 
mysteries in creation! these incomprehensibles in 
Providence! these intricate labyrinths! these tangled 
skeins in personal experiences ! no mind can stand up 
long under their awful pressure, unbuttressed by faith. 
Many have been driven into insanity by their realiza- 
tion and constant contemplation. Faith placidly lays 
her magnetic palm on the throbbing brain, conducts 
away the fever of its pulsations, and hushes their 
wild flutter and tumult to rest. 

"The Great Spirit seems to have forgotten us!" was 
the plaintive wail of the Indian chiefs in conference 
with a Peace Commission. The masses of the heathen 
world are robbed, many of them tortured, butchered 
by remorseless oppressors. Then I returned, and 
saw all the oppressions that are done under the 
sun; and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, 



222 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

and they had no comforter! and on the side of their 
oppressors there was power, but they had no com- 
forter! Wherefore I praised the dead who are al- 
ready dead, more than the living who are yet alive. 
Yea, better than they both, is he who hath not yet been, 
who hath not seen the evil work that is done under 
the sun. Eccl. iv:l-4. Thus is limned society in his 
day, as he, king and philosopher, had experienced. 
Thus has it been most often in the world's history 
since. Thus it is chiefly with the masses of men now. 
There's no comfort, — rather, pain, bewilderment, de- 
spair in the contemplation. 

When we are thus appalled by what we see, hear, 
feel and know, we must cry to the All-Helping, — God 
and Father: Help us! Help us every day! One 
day's impartation of succor will not suffice. Help us 
every hour! Give it us in needed measures! Keep 
us, reassure us; we cannot keep, reassure ourselves! 
In all our stupefying, blinding, crushing experience, 
help us to look to Thee, Thou Tried One! for sym- 
pathy. Then may we be qualified to minister of it to 
others in the great shadow, — in the depths of their 
affliction; rather, we shall be moved to turn them 
from resort to our poor ministrations to seek the 
effectual succor in Thee! 



ILLUSTRATIVE AND SUGGESTIVE. 



Next to the originator of a good sentence is the first quoter of it. — Emerson. 



Suffering, trial, exposure seem to be necessary elements in the 
education of a moral being. . . . To them we owe the apostles 
and martyrs, we owe the moral force and deep sympathy of private 
and domestic life, we owe the development of what is divine in 
human nature. — Dr. Channing. 

Sorrow is the great birth-agony of immortal powers, — sorrow is 
the great searcher and revealer of hearts, the great test of truth ; 
. . . all shams and realities meet in the fire of that awful fur- 
nace. . . . Sorrow is divine. . . . The crown of all crowns 
has been one of thorns. There have been many books that treat 
of the mystery of sorrow, but only one that bids us glory in tribu- 
lation. — The Minister^ s Wooing. 

Some are sifted by sickness ; some by bankruptcy ; some by be- 
ing slandered; some by the alternations of fortune; some by 
bereavements. . . . It is a great thing for a man to have the 
chaff all blown out of him ; to see how, when troubles come, and 
the winds blow, the chaff flies from the heap that he fancied there 
was of his wisdom and riches and power ; and how the heap di- 
minishes, so that, where there was a bushel, there is only a peck. 
—H. W. Beecker. 

It is an awful moment when the soul begins to find that the 
props on which it has blindly rested so long are, many of them, 
rotten, and begins to feel the nothingness of many of the tradi- 
tionary opinions which have been received with implicit confi- 
dence, and in that horrible insecurity begins also to doubt, whether 
there be anything to believe at all ; . . , when this life has 
lost its meaning, and seeni§ shrivelled into a span ; when the grave 

(223) 



224 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

appears to be the end of all, human goodness nothing but a name, 
and the sky above this Universe a dead expanse, black with the 
void from which God Himself has disappeared. — F. W. Robertson. 

Great afflictions — those which tear up the roots of the soul — are 
often succeeded, in the course of the man's history, by a period of 
skepticism. The fact is, such afflictions are disenchanting powers; 
they give to the soul an earnestness and a power of discrimination 
which no illusion can withstand. — Mrs. Stoive. — Nina Gordon. 

There is so much of sublimity in these great trials of faith, that 
one feels raised by them to a nearer approach to the Infinite, to a 
clearer vision of the realities of the spiritual world, a nearness, 
almost oneness, with the Father of Spirits. Who would desire to 
avert any thing that will do this for us.? — Mrs. L. Ware to a 
Friend. — Memoir. 

Write out a list of all your annoyances and worries. You will 
be surprised to find how few they are, and how small they look. 
. . . Make a list of all the blessings you enjoy. . . . You 
will see reason to feel heartily ashamed of your previous state of 
discontent. — Recreations of a Country Parson. 

All great souls are apt to be in thick darkness generally, till the 
eternal ways and the celestial guiding stars disclose themselves, 
and the vague Abyss of Life knits itself into Firmaments for them. 
Temptations in the wilderness, Choices of Hercules, and the like, 
in succinct or loose form, are appointed for every man that will 
assert a soul in himself and be a man. — Carlyle's Cromivell. 

We sometimes speak as if the child, dying so early, had accom- 
plished no purpose ; but we err. The child does much. How 
much has this little boy done for you all ! How much warmth he 
has shed through your hearts ! How many holy feelings he has 
awakened ! How much happiness he has given ! What a lovely 
image he has left behind him ! And what a new bond he has 
formed between you and the future world! Is all this nothing!* — 
Dr. Channing. 

We cannot part with our friends We cannot let our angels go. 
We do not see that they only go out, that archangels may come 
in. . . . We sit and weep in vain. The voice of the Almighty 
saith, '< Up and onward for evermore !" — Emerson. 

Ah, well ! God is above all, and gracious alike in what He 



THE CHRIST OF SYMPATHY. 225 

conceals and what He discloses; — benignant and bounteous, as 
well when He reclaims as when He bestows. In a few years, at 
farthest, our loved and lost ones will welcome us to their home. — 
Horace Greeley on the death of his '■'■ Pickie^^ in Memoirs of Marga- 
ret Fuller. 

Kind words, sympathizing attentions, watchfulness against 
wounding men's sensitiveness, — these cost very little, but they are 
priceless in their value. . . . It is the omission of these things 
which is irreparable ! — F. TV. Robertson. 

His bearing towards inferiors was marked by the most polished 
delicacy ; his consideration for the comfort of servants was so 
great, that they adored him. . . . He spoke much about the 
wrongs of woman ; and it is very touching to know that during 
the last year of his life, he frequently went forth at night and en- 
deavored to redeem the fallen women of Brighton. . . . He 
was often crushed to the earth by the thought of the guilt and 
suffering of Humanity. He felt them personally, acutely, as if 
they were his own. — Biogra;phy of F. W. Robertson. 

Large natural sympathies are good, but large supernatural are 
better ; even svich as had partly sounded the compassions of God, 
and had their own private Gethsemane. . . . And this is the 
true hiding of power. A great, right soul, bearing visibly such 
loads from God, Avill never have a dreary, dreamy, far-off way, 
but will go directly into men's bosoms by the certificate of his own 
true feeling and his manly sense of man. Even his "good morn- 
ing" will go through them as a welcome word from some beauti- 
ful otherwhere not of this world. 

How many are there, who by reason of poverty, obscurity, in- 
firmity of mind or body, can never hope to do much by action, — 
who often sigh at the contemplation of their want of power to 
effect anything. 

There is no class of oeings more to be pitied than defeated men 
who have gotten nothing out of their defeat, but that dry sorrow 
of the world which makes it only more barren , and therefore more 
insupportable. . . . How many are there who are finally 
driven out of every plan they have laid for their course of life, — 
Dr. Bushnell. 
15 



226 THE CHKIST IN LIFE. 

There is not a servant that you employ who is not just like you 
in conscience, in sympathy, in love, in hope, in ambition, in pride, 
and frequently in delicacy of feeling ; . . . who does not, like 
you, desire recognition, praise, gentleness, forbearance, patience; 
. . . who is not sacred in the sight of God ; . . . who has 
not his guardian angels round about him. 

In order to ascertain what your missionary spirit is, I need only 
to find out how you treat those that are around about you — your 
servants, your subordinates, your adversaries, those that are 
poor and unpopular and despised in the community. 

It is hard to see the thunderous processes of industry go past 
your skilled hand and willing feet, and you not be called to take 
part and lot in them. 

I have seen men that were held back only as by a hair from 
self-destruction, on account of the anguish and agony of feelings 
induced by mere business matters. — H. W. Beecher. 

He was the brother and the father of all orphaned and widowed 
hearts. . . . He was trusted with the most delicate and im- 
portant secrets by women of all ranks, from princesses to domestic 
drudges. . . . Repentant sinners sought consolation in a con- 
fession to him ; and in some cases he was employed to make repa- 
ration, where a breath or a whisper would have tarnished the 
honor of the parties. — Life of Jean Paul Richter. 

The characteristic trait of Margaret [Fuller], to which all her 
talents and acquirements were subordinate, was sympathy, — uni- 
versal sympathy. She had that large intelligence and magnan- 
imity which enabled her to comprehend the struggles and tri- 
umphs of every form of character. — Memoirs. 

It cannot be denied, that there are men in this world in whose 
lot failure seems to be the rule- Everything to which they put 
their hand breaks down or goes amiss. — Recreations of a Country 
Parson. 

You have "succeeded" through life! And why.!* Because 
you came into life at a happy season. You took the tide at its 
influx. And, if that moment had been lost, no effort, however 
strenuous, could have brought back the golden opportunity. 
Some great public event, over which you had no control, forward- 
ed your private plans. An earlier occurrence of a storm, the 



THE CHBIST OF SYMPATHY. 227 

failure of others in business, a commercial revulsion, a war might 
have involved you in inextricable embarrassment. — Dr. Channing. 
If you choose to represent the various parts in life by holes in a 
table of different shapes, — some circular, some triangular, some 
square, some oblong, — and the persons acting these parts by bits 
of wood of similar shapes, we shall generally find that the trian- 
gular person has got into the square hole, the oblong into the 
triangular, while the square person has squeezed himself into the 
round hole. — Sydney Smith. 

Tortured by fierce experiences : consumed 

Through fiery ordeal of implacable years ; 

Shut out from hope: beset with pains and fears; 

Pierced by sharp thorns where roses should have bloomed ! 

Thy buried pangs exhumed and re-exumed. 

Without a single thought or sight that cheers, 

How sad thy bitter lot ; yet, he who steers 

His bark above the grave where lie entombed, 

In time's deep sea, the fruits of vain desire, 

Blighted ere ripe, may hold a nobler way! 

And though rough storms about his course may fire 

Their thunderbolts, and waves and winds may play 

With his frail vessel like a toy, yet higher 

Than storm, and cloud and wind shall rise his day 

— Songs of a Wayfarer., by W. Davis. — Living Age. 

Not all who seem to fail have failed indeed ; 

Not all who fail have therefore worked in vain ; 
For all our acts to many issues lead ; 

And out of earnest purpose, pure and plain, 
Enforced by honest toil of hand or brain, 

The Lord will fashion in his own good time 
(Be this the laborer's proudly humble creed) 

Such ends as, to His wisdom, fittest chime 
With His vast love's eternal harmonies. 

There is no failure for the good and wise : 
What though thy seed should fall by the wayside, 

And the birds snatch it ; — yet the birds are fed ; 
Or they may bear it far across the tide, 

To give rich harvests after thou art dead. 
— Politics Jor the People^ 1848. — Quoted in '■'• Character ^"^ by Smiley. 

Of all the dull, dead weights man ever bore. 
Sure, none can wear the soul with discontent. 
Like consciousness of power unused. 

— Kathrina. 

The things that are really for thee gravitate to thee. You are 



228 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

runiiiing to seek your friend. ... If you do not find him, will 
you not acquiesce that it is best you should not find him? for 
there is a power, which, as it is in you, is in him also, and could 
therefore very well bring you together, if it were for the best^ 
You are preparing with eagerness to go and render a service to 
which your talent and your taste invite you, the love of men and the 
hope of fame. Has it not occurred to you, that you have no right 
to go, unless you are equally willing to be prevented from going? 
O, believe, as thou livest, that every sound that is spoken over the 
round world, which thou oughtest to hear, will vibrate on thine 
ear! Every proverb, every book, every by-word that belongs to 
thee for aid and comfort, shall sui'ely come home through open or 
winding passages. Every friend whom, not thy fantastic will, but 
the great and tender heart in thee craveth, shall lock thee in his 
embrace. — Emerson. 

Serene I fold my hands and wait. 

Nor care for wind or tide or sea ; 
I rave no more 'gainst time or fate, 

For lo! my own shall come to me. 

— Joh7i Burroughs. 

[Find and read the balance of these stanzas.] 

It takes the world a good while to acknowledge its poor relations. 
— Atlantic Monthly., Dec. j86y. 

And here I sat a long, long time, waiting patiently for the world 
to know me, and sometimes wondering why it did not know me 
sooner, or whether it would ever know me at all, — at least, till I 
were in my grave. . . . And now I begin to understand, why 
was imprisoned so many years in this lonely chamber, and why I 
could never break through the viewless bolts and bars. — Hawthorne 
from Family Mansion^ Salem., Oct. /j.^ i8^g. 

When you get into a tight place, and everything goes against 
you, till it seems as if you couldn't hold on a minute longer, never 
give up then, for that's just the place and time that the tide'll turn. 
Never trust to prayer without using every means in your power, 
and never use the means without trusting in prayer. — Old Town 
Polks. 

Through these eighteen years He waited until the Father should 
call Him to the field He was to fill. He waited, day after day, 



THE CHRIST OP SYMPATHY. 229 

year after year, in contentment and peace, while life seemed to be 
moving no nearer to its goal. . . . 

How trying it is, as measured by a human standard, when one 
is conscious of being able and called to do something great, to be 
obliged to live in obscurity and inaction ; how human self-will 
chafes when its way forward is hedged up! — President Woolsey. 

There are many persons who are competent to discharge higher 
trusts, but cannot get up to them. . . . society is full of per- 
sons who are below their appropriate level. . . . You see on 
every hand, among women, instances the most marked of persons 
who are fitted for higher places than they occupy. And there are 
not a few of these instances in which patient waiting for a better 
day is rendered more beautiful than in almost any others. . . . 
Are there not multitudes of such persons that are conscious, 
the greatest part of their inward nature is buried and has no func- 
tion.? . . . I think some of the noblest natures walk mostly in 
disguise. . . . There are multitudes to-day that see the world 
going by them, conscious that they have powers equal to any that 
are in exercise. There are not a few who are deriving their pit- 
tance of bread from men whom they greatly surpass. , . . 
Waiting is as much a matter of God's appointing as serving. And 
he that in life knows how to wait, knows how to serve God as ef- 
fectually, as the man that knows how to work. . . . Jesus was 
restrained, hedged up, limited, confined to a sphere infinitely be- 
low His appropriate one. And the very glory of His example is 
that He laid Himself aside, and became something far below Himself 
— a human being — and humbled Himself unto death. — H. W. 
Beecher. 

Be patient, be confiding, you do not choose your sphere. Pre- 
pare yourself for greater usefulness by fidelity in the path Prov- 
idence now marks out for you. — Dr. Channing. 

The world is for him who hath patience. — Italian Proverb. 

A stone that is fit for the wall is not left in the way. — Persian 
Proverb. 

There is no si^h thing as knowing a man intimately. Every 
soul is, for the greater part of its mortal life, isolated from every 
other. — Atlantic Monthly^ 1862. 

A man or a woman, who has not toiled and suffered, can no 



230 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

more be great than a lump of ore, which has never felt the furnace, 
can be a golden crown, or a block of marble untouched by a mal- 
let and chisel, be a lovely statue. — 6". B. Gould. 

It is better, at least in great trouble, to be at first ivithout human 
sympathy altogether. — The Grey son Letters, 

What a man can do in conjunction with others does not test the 
man. Tell us what he can do alone. 

Men of Elijah's stamp, and placed under Elijah's circumstances, 
must make up their minds to live without sympathy. Their feel- 
ings will be misunderstood, and their projects incomprehended. 
They must be content to live alone. 

We touch other human spirits only at a point or two. In the 
deepest departments of thought and feeling we are alone, and the 
desire to escape that loneliness finds for itself a voice in prayer. — 
F. W. Robertson. 

How long we may live in the same house, sit at the 
same table, hold daily converse with friends, to whom and by 
whom, these doors of the inner nature are closed! — Old-Town 
Folks. 

Let a man remember the days of darkness, for they shall be 
many. — Ecc. xi: 8. 

-The spirit, that I have seen 



May be a devil : and the devil hath power 
To assume a pleasing shape ; yea, and, perhaps 
Out of my weakness, and my melancholy 
As he is very potent with such spirits. 
Abuses me to damn me. 

— Hamlet. 
Mrs. Stowe, in one of her "Atlantic " papers, refers to a lady who 
declared she knew that at certain periods, she was possessed with 
the Devil, and at such hours kept silent. 

A phrenologist once told me, that, whenever he felt these evil 
influences. ... he imposed perfect silence upon himself for 
the rest of the day. Madame Du Deffland observes : "We must 
use address with ourselves, if we wish to avoid the most terrible 
sufferings." — Reminiscences of Thought and Feeling. 

Our moods do not believe in each other. To-day I am full of 
thoughts, and can write what I please ; I see no reason why I 
should not have the same thought, the same power of expression, 



THE CHRIST OF SYMPATHY. 231 

to-morrow. What I write, whilst I write it, seems the most nat- 
ural thing in the world ; but yesterday I saw a dreary vacuity in 
this direction in which now I see so much ; and a month hence, I 
doubt not, I shall wonder who he was that wrote so many contin- 
uous pages. — Einerson. 

I bless God I have been inured to difficulties, and I never 
found God failing when I trusted in Him. — O. Crom-well. 

Even the salvation of the world is accomplished by treachery, 
false witness and a cross. 

All temptations are but seemings. The devils bait their hook, 
never with truths, always with illusions. Nor were the tempta- 
tions any the less real, or Satanic, as being phantoms of exhaustion. 

Now a wise man is one who understands himself well enough 
to make due allowance for such insane moods, never concluding 
that a thing is thus or thus, because jvist now it bears that look ; 
waiting often to see what a sleep or a walk, or a cool revision, or 
perhaps a considerable turn of repentance will do. — Dr. Bushnell, 

In the Avondale calamity, one hundred and eight or more min- 
ers were suffocated, twelve or fifteen of whom were young boys. 
Seventy-three wives were made widows, and one hundred and 
fifty-four children were made orphans. A gray-haired father who 
had three sons in the mine, sat with his two youngest boys, twelve 
and fifteen years old, one clasped in either arm. So firm was his 
embrace of one, even in death, that the corpses could not be sep- 
arated. Other fathers had their sons locked in their arms; and 
there were two little brothers, with no parents, who lay in each 
other's embrace as if in peaceful slumber. One poor woman lost 
a nephew, an uncle, a father, a brother, and a husband. Another 
lost every male member of her family — a husband and three 
sons. 

Women with children clinging to their night dresses stood par- 
alyzed with fear, and were scarcely able to move. Others who 
were on deck swooned away and remained where they had fallen, 
while many of the remaining women and children ran around the 
deck screaming and crying. Husbands were looking for their 
wives, while little children, who in the excitement, had become 
separated from their parents, ran from room to room in search of 
them and crying as though their hearts would break. The two 



232 THE CHEIST IN LIFE. 

children of a joung couple lay asleep — one baby, six weeks old, 
the other a boy of three. The father took the biggest child in his 
arms, the mother clung to the infant, and the two struggled to the 
deck. The saloon was knee deep in water by this time, and in 
less than five minutes man and wife were in the water. The 
waves ran high, and soon husband and wife were swept apart. 
The former lost strength, relaxed his hold on the child, and both 
were drowned. The mother held her babe above the hungry 
waters until her strength, too, was exhausted, and then a wave 
larger than the rest dashed it from her arms, and she saw it sink 
slowly to the depths below. Just as she was exhausted, and after 
the life preserver slipped from beneath her arms, the Moccasin 
came up, and she was recalled to life. "I have my husband here," 
she said, "but they can never find my babies in so large a sea." — 
Wreck of the Steamer Narragansett. 

Of the telescoping of the M. C. R. R., at Jackson, Oct. 1879, a 
passenger relates, that he could scarcely find room for his foot in 
the telescoped car, so thick were the bodies of the dead and 
wounded. The groans were horrible. Children were calling for 
parents, and in the inky blackness of the wrecked car, mothers 
could be heard crying for their children, husbands for their wives, 
and wives for their husbands. The body of one little girl was 
handed out, whose head had been literally smashed to a pulp, the 
brains protruding from the gaping wounds. A little boy was 
passed through the window who was also terribly smashed. A 
family consisting of father, mother, and one little boy, four years 
of age, were found crvished beneath the pile of splintered timber. 
The husband and wife were dead. The mother's arm was clasped 
so tightly about the child, that the little one could not be extricated 
from this veritable embrace of death for several minutes. The 
little fellow was finally gotten out of the wreck, after two hours' 
labor, when it was found that one of his legs was broken. 

At Ashtabula, O., there was a combination of all that is horrible 
in this disaster — the blinding snow-storm ; the raging wind ; the 
terrible cold ; the deadly crash of the bridge ; the fatal fall on to 
the ice, seventy-five feet below ; the water and the consuming fire; 
the shrieks of the wounded ; the groans of the dying; the ghastly 
dead ; the piteous cries for help. 



THE CHRIST OF SYMPATHY. 233 

At the Hudson River railroad calamity, February, 1871, an en- 
tire family had perished at one fell stroke, leaving not a single one. 
The father and mother lay side by side, beautifully enshrouded, — 
but their disfigured faces wrapped in white linen and shut out 
from view. Near by were two smaller caskets, one containing 
the son, and the other the eldest daughter. The first was a fair- 
haired boy, aged about 12 years. He was not mutilated in the 
least, and the expression on his face was remarkable. He appeared 
as if he had closed his eyes, simply feigning sleep. The arms of 
his sister, a girl two years younger than the boy, were folded 
across her breast, and the playful hands were white as snow, save 
the two fingers that were burned to a black crisp. On one finger 
of the left hand she wore a tiny gold ring, which she carried to the 
grave. On the other side of the parents was the baby laid out in 
a small casket, and enshrouded in snowy white. ... A child 
— a babe — scarcely old enough to talk plain, was picked up near 
one of the wrecked cars by a brakeman. It showed some signs of 
life, and the moment it discovered that an arm encircled its waist, 
it nestled up closely to the man, uttered the words " papa, mamma," 
and died without the contraction of a muscle. A beautiful smile 
played on the lips after death. 

The Ville du Havre w^as oscillating on the sea, one mast crush- 
ing as it fell a boat containing more than thirty persons and ready 
to put to sea. A group of ladies were praying aloud, and taking 
their last farewell of those near them. One young woman, of 
about twenty, held her mother in a close embrace, and said, 
"Courage, dear mamma, a struggle of a few seconds and we shall 
enter heaven together." The four little things whom we had 
brought up from below, after a few words of supplication to God, 
said: "Let us pray again." A Catholic priest, regardless of the 
peril, and thinking only of his ministry, went from group to 
group, giving absolution to those who repented. ... A yard 
was floating, to which more than twenty persons were clinging; 
at every instant some heads disappeared, and soon only two re- 
mained, and those were at last saved by a boat at the moment 
when their strength was about to fail. Cries of " Save me ! save 
me!" resounded on all sides. " Oh, my father! " " Oh, my child!" 



234 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

Then long, agonizing groans of despair ; then silence, interrupted 
only by the sinister dash of the waves. 

In the burning of the steamer McGill, on the Mississippi river, 
1871, none of the females were saved. All were lost. Two fe- 
males were emigrants ; one was seen to leap overboard, with her 
child in her arms, when the fire approached the forward deck. 
As she leaped from the guards, she piteously exclaimed, *'God 
help us," and, clasping her little babe to her bosom, she sprang 
into the dark, surging tide, and the waters passed over her head 
and that of her babe forever. The other female was also a mother, 
and she was to be seen cowering on the deck, with her little ones 
held firmly to her breast, as she devoutly prayed to the great Je- 
hovah in behalf of herself and her offspring. 

During the war between Turkey and Russia, when a train left 
Tatar Bazardjik, thousands upon thousands of fugitive Turks 
clutched to the train ; they clambered on to the tops of the car- 
riages, the steps and buffers. They even put their women and 
children on the rails to prevent the engines from advancing. 
Further on we met trucks full of these wretched people, scores of 
them crowded into sheep carriages, layers one above the other, 
waiting to be carried on. In many instances these living truck- 
loads had remained for five days stationary, not a man, woman, or 
child daring to leave them for fear of losing their places. The 
scene was most horrible. I saw wretched little children thrown 
away, starved and frozen to death, into the snow ; they were dying 
in cart-loads. 

Women in straight-jackets and leather muffs, and chained about 
the waist in their cells, all of them, — no wandering vacantly after 
one here; women who danced, and howled, and sung; women 
who ranted and raved, cursed and shouted, and screeched ; wom- 
en who glared like wild animals, and who hissed like serpents, 
howled like wolves, and prayed and blasphemed ; women in every 
conceivable form of horror, and with that peculiar wild beast 
smell that always characterizes the true maniac. The keepers in 
this building have every third day to change off, and to seek need- 
ful quiet and repose. — Insane Asylum. — Cor. of Chicago Tribune. 



The qualities which calculate to shine are exactly those which 



THE CHRIST OF SYMPATHY. 235 

minister to the Avorst ruin. God's highest gifts, — talent, beauty, 
feeling, imagination, power, — they carry with them the possibil- 
ity of highest heaven, and the lowest hell. Be sure, that it is by 
that which is highest in you that you may be lost. It is the aw- 
ful warning, and not the excuse of evil, that the light which leads 
astray is light from heaven. 

There are temptations to which some are subjected in a long 
series, in which, to have stood upright would have demonstrated 
not a man's but an angel's strength. 

The very purity of these aspirations becomes a dangerous gift. 
They lie very close to what is wrong ; they ti-ansform themselves 
very easily into tempters, — Lucifer s cast down from heaven. 

It cannot be, that God has given us beings here to love, and 
that to love them intensely is idolatry. 

The tenderer the heart is, the more it is exposed to being torn, 
rent, and tortured in separations, bereavements, deaths, broken 
hearts. — F. W. Robertson. 

It is obvious enough, what jeopardy must attend the playing of 
the inflammable temperament and weak conscience about the 
conscious edges of relations, on which such thunders of soul and 
fate hang ready to be unleashed at a look. 

Whenever there is danger that friendship will become another 
passion, where there are legal or moral duties forbidding it, the 
true course is not to dismiss and renounce the friendship, but to 
preserve it in its undegenerate integrity, by strengthening the 
sanctions, restraints, and obligations that should properly guide 
and guard it. 

So he need not repudiate the friendship of a woman, because 
it may lead to harm ; he should cherish the friendship, and be- 
ware of the harm. — Friendship of Women. — Alger, 

When I see a mind thirsting for objects of affection, on whom 
to pour forth an intense love, and from whom to receive a like 
love in return, I discern in this an exhalted nature, a spirit meant 
to extend itself forever, to know and to love God, and to love 
more and more what is good and beautiful in His universe. . . 
Understand and honor yourself. Feel that you have within you 
a spirit too divine ever to be given up in despair, or to be sacri- 
ficed to any earthly disappointment. Feel how unjust you 



236 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

are to yourself, in suffering any human being to arrest in its pro- 
gress sucn a mind as yours. Remember that you were made to 
love infinitely and to love forever, and let no ill-requited affection 
shut up this unfathomed fountain. — Dr. Ckanni7ig. 

There are secret and yet dominant sins, which lie in such sen- 
sitive recesses of our nature, that the heart shuts convulsively 
over them, whenever a searching eyo. draws nigh. And there are 
other sins more fearful, which are stationed, as it were, at the por- 
tals of the heart, Avarding off scrutiny with flaming sword 
and flushed brow. These sins, so subtle, so secret, so deflant 
in their fear of discovery, are hidden from mail's sight, yet 
they form often the burden of our life, and, if there be no help, it's 
controlling power. We must sit alone w^ith them, and struggle 
alone, for our fellow-creatures cannot aid us in this dread en- 
counter. Man knows not with whom we are fighting, or for what 
we fight. — Francis Wharton^ D. D. 



The common English verdict is right as well as charitable, 
which supposes, that in every such case reason has become un- 
hinged and responsibility is gone. — Recreations of a Country Parson. 

Most of the styled accidental drownings in the waters adjacent 
New York City, are said to be suicides. Numerous bodies of 
such float in the Bay of San Francisco. In Paris, sviicides aver- 
age two each day. Eternity alone will reveal the numerous in- 
stances in which the design was harbored but not executed. 

Thus one wrote, ere she took her life in St, Louis, inconsolable 
on account of the loss of her youthful husband : " I cannot live ; 
life to me is torture. Be so kind and do not separate me from 
him who was my all on earth. Don't call me insane, for I am not. 
I had fully six weeks' time to reflect upon the deed. You know 
what I suffered, and there can be no greater pleasure than to go 
where he is. All I request is to be in the same grave with him." 
Oh, could she have been directed to the friend of Mary and Martha 
in her hour of woe ! 

H. F. P. an interesting young man of twenty-one years, of good 
parentage, committed suicide in Chicago. It was said he had 
been very unfortunate in all his transactions, and his frequent 
failures preyed heavily on his mind. 



THE CHRIST OF SYMrATHY. 237 

Another interesting young man in Cincinnati, "C. W. A." left 
this Avail behind him : "My entire life has been one series of er- 
rors, or mistakes and failures — in every enterprise and under- 
taking, both of private and business nature, some of which have 
been very dear to ine ; yet not entirely through want of tenacity 
or strength of purpose." 

Doubtless: sometimes they w'ere found in thy congregations, 
face to thy face, looking into thine eyes, and hanging upon thy 
utterances,— representative of the sympathizing Christ! Did it 
happen on those occasions, that thou had'sta word of consolation, of 
sympathy, for souls so tried as theirs? 

Cowards, though it may be said they were, destitute of mental 
stamina to bear up manfully under the burdens of sorrows prov- 
identially imposed upon them; they needed sympathy. Boast not 
of thy strength, O confident and self-reliant one! the Devil may 
prove more than a match for thee, in some crisis of weakness and 
despair, some sudden impulse to the suicidal act. 

In the satchel of a fallen, beautiful girl, were found the follow- 
ing lines in manuscript, after she had leaped overboard from a 
steamer en-route from New York to Boston: 

I can no longer endure this polluting. 

This festering breath ; 
Gladly I fly to the refuge that's left me — 
Merciful death. 
Not sadly, tearfully. 
But gladly, cheerfully. 
Go to my death. 

Priests may refuse to grant sanctified burial' 

Here unto me ; 
Father, I thank Thee ! a iDlessing is always held 
Over the sea. 
Aye, in its wildest foam, 
Aye, in its thickest gloom, 
Blest is the sea. 

Welcome, O Sea ! with thy breakings and dashings, 

That never shall cease ; 
Down in thy angriest, stormiest waters 
, Oh! hide me in peace. 

Say to the weary face, 
"Come to thy resting place, 
Slumber in peace." 



238 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

Proud Pharisee of a woman ! who passest by an erring sister 
with a haughty look of conscious superiority, dost thou know 
what temptation is, with strong feeling and mastering opportunity »* 
— P. W. Robertson. 

It was only a woman's cry, — 

It was only a woman's moan, — 
Only a woman's heart that broke: 

Let her alone! 
It was only an idle tale, — 

What if it does her wrong? 
What will her words avail? 

Numbers alone are strong ; 
She is but one. You need not fear; 
The shadows will follow her manj^ a year: 

Let her alone ! 

It was only a woman's tears ; 

Meet them with sneers and frown ; 
It is nothing to you if she stand or fall ; 

Let her go down ! 
It is nothing to you if it be a lie 

That tarnished her spotless fame, — 
Nothing to you if she droop or die 

'Neath the weight of the cruel shame. 
'Twas only a woman ; 'tis nothing to you ; 
Besides she is friendless — it would not do ; 

Let her go down ! 

— Garnet. 

O World ! Be merciful ! Hers is the cost, 

Not thine, that she has lost, forever lost, 

All that a woman loves ! Let it suffice 

Thy harshest sentence, that her soul such price 

Of agony is paying, hour by hour. 

As ye can never dream ! Oh ! for the power 

To tell ye how the sweet and tender eyes 

Of little children stab her ! How the cries 

Of downy spring-time robins, in their nest; 

And cooing of white doves, by doves caressed ; 

And ruddy firelights, streaming out at night 

From sacred homes, where life is pure and bright ; 

And joyous voices, falling through the air, 

Of happy women — all to her despair, 

Are maddening, mocking things, and in her soul 

The iron deeper plunge ; till o'er her roll 

Such surging, tideless seas of bitterness, 



THE CHRIST OF SYMPATHY. 239 

Of loss, which nothing can retrieve or bless, 

That death by any fate, and any shape 

Of woe beyond, seem but a glad escape ! 

And world, hard world, men — and ye women too — 

Bethink ye how to-day it fared with you. 

If in your midst that voice were lifted up. 

Which once, of old, when this same cruel cup 

Of scorn and shame on a defenceless head 

Was poured, rang through all Galilee, and said: 

"Let him, who is among you without one 

Such sin as hers has been, cast the first stone!" 

O men and women ! not one whit than they 

Do ye stand purer! "One by one," away, 

"Of your own thoughts convicted," ye would steal; 

While nearer Jesus, Magdalen would kneel 

Shedding repentant tears on His pure garment's hem. 

To hear "Go. sin no more! Neither do I condemn!" 

— Helen Hunt jfacksoji. 



We are living in the midst of an amount of corruption second 
only to that of Sodom and Gomorrah. It seems as though soci- 
ety must dissolve, as though it inust be unable to cohere much 
longer. And the most alarming thing is not the condition of our 
pulpits; it is the most absolute torpor of the public conscience. We 
are in cities that are full of churches, in w^hich the most mon- 
strous ebullitions of wickedness seem not much to disturb the 
tranquility of the house of God. The Christianity of New York 
is no match for the depravity in that city. And what is true of 
that city is not untrue of many others. . . . To-day, money 
is our danger, and the corruption that follows money. 

Beware of taking the power that wealth gives you, to build a 
house with walls so thick, that you cannot hear the sighs of men 
in the streets. Beware, that you do not build your banqueting 
hall so high that you cannot see the beggar full of sores that lies at 
your door. 

Beware of refined selfishness. Beware of esthetic selfishness. 
Beware of aristocratic selfishness. Beware of the selfishness of 
prosperity and of respectability. — H. W. Beecher. 

God will yet take account of the selfishness of wealth, and His 
quarrel has yet to be fought out. — Kingsley, 



(240) 



CHAPTER V. 



THE ANTI-CHRIST IN SELF. 

Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. — Matth. xxii:jg. 

Consider, each one, not only his own things, but also the things 
of others. — Phil, it: 4. 

Let no man seek only his own- things, but also the things of 
others. — /. Cor. x : 24. 

But know this, that in the last days, perilous times shall come. 
For men shall be lovers of self, lovers of money, etc. — II Tim- 
othy Hi: ly 2. 

"For all seek their own, not the things of Jesus — 
the Christ," is as true now of the masses of men, as 
it was in Paul's time. According to the prevision 
given him, self-loving and money loving will head 
the long catalogue of sins and vices, which will be 
characteristic of "the last days." There has been, in- 
deed, a mighty progress in the civilization of certain 
portions of the human family, — in their exterior 
Christianization — to some extent, in their interior, 
but selfishness has not ceased to be dominant. Though, 
it may be less coarse and turbulent, — more subtle and 
refined, it is rapacious as ever. 

In great cities, where all the faculties of the mind 
are put to the greatest tension, it is developed in its 
intensity. Multitudes in them drive their vocations, 
as if there was no God, no future accountability and 

16 (241) 



242 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

retribution; no regard for the interests of their neigh- 
bors, when conflicting with theirs, and standing in the 
way of their rapacity. Thus, they move on, pell- 
mell to the end. After that: What? 

Scenes in New York city some years since, when 
gambling in gold was rampant, illustrate the aband- 
onment to which souls are left, when seized with the 
accursed thirst for gold. Here are a few sentences 
from the attempts of a reporting witness to depict 
them : "You hear what seems to be the screeches of 
the damned; it is only the operators in the Gold 
Room. Men are fighting to get in, begging to get in; 
men are fighting their way out. You can hear noth- 
ing but one shrill, poignant, horrible clamor of threats. 
Five hundred men are wild with frenzy, that in the 
cooler atmosphere of life is never awakened; their 
eyes gleam strangely, their nerves stand out on their 
temples and necks, their cheeks palpitate, there is a 
foaming saliva gathered at the corners of their mouths. 
They scream and gesticulate and thrust each other out 
of the way, and gather round the iron railing in the 
centre of the room, where a puny little fountain sings 
its frightened but unheard song of purity, and there 
they bay each other until they are purple in the face, 
and shake their memoranda like signals of distress." ^ 

Some of the principals in the gigantic swindle in 
" Erie Stock " during Nov., 1868, and which caused so 
much financial distress through the nation, were said 
to have been among the " foremost in the works of 
charity" in New York city, — "the education of the 
young," "foreign missions," "negro suffrage," etc. 
I. Cor. Chicago Tribune. 



GIGANTIC SELFISHNESS. 243 

With reference to these facts, H. W. Beecher was re- 
ported as saying: "New York city had nearly as many 
churches as dens of infamy; yet the pulpits of that 
city allowed all kinds of corruption to grow within its 
borders, until it is second only to Sodom and Gomor- 
rah. Business men, who stand high in the church, 
set examples before their clerks, that ought to make 
every honest man abhor them from the bottom of his 
heart. Ministers are supposed to be the mouthpieces 
of God; yet they grow fat in the service of the Devil 
by keeping silent, when they should lift up their voices 
and express the wickedness of corrupt men in high 
places." * 

To all such criminals, and to such as bear Christian 
names, the following epigrammatic lines on the mam- 
moth "stock jobber" Law, placarded on the walls of 
Paris a century and a half since, are as appropriate, 
as to him: 

"Beelzebub begat Law; Law begat the Mississippi; 
the Mississippi begat the scheme; the scheme begat 

I. Some very acute and long-headed pirates of society are kind 
family men, love to gather children around their knees, have sym- 
pathetic impulses ; and when they are not on a plundering excur- 
sion among widows and orphans, as directors of mills, railroads, 
and trust companies, would be selected to found a society of cor- 
rect men in consequence of immaculate dicky and domesticity.— 
John Weiss. — Religion and Science. 

I suppose it may be quite safely asserted, that half of the stock 
manipulators and gold gamblers in New York are regular attend- 
ants at church, and would make a perfectly orthodox confession 
of faith. Some of them are noted for their zealous piety, for their 
efficiency in prayer meetings, and for their generosity, too, in 
handing over to Jesus what they have cheated out of their own 
confederates in financial wickedness. — Wm. J. Potter* 



244 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

the paper; the paper begat the bank; the bank be- 
gat the note; the note begat the share; the share be- 
gat the stock-jobbing; the stock-jobbing begat the 
registration; the registration begat the account; the 
account begat the general balance ; the general bal- 
ance begat zero ; from which all power of begetting 
was taken away." 

When brought to the last analysis, the lives of but 
few can stand the test: Love thy neighbor as thyself. 
What was said of Hebrew society, it is feared, might 
be said of large numbers, if not the largest, in the cit- 
ies of Christendom. From the least of them to the 
greatest of them, every one is given to covetousness. 
Jer. vi:13, viii:10. Take ye heed, every one, of his 
neighbor, and trust ye not in any brother; for every 
brother will utterly supplant. Jer. ix:4. The mass 
of professing Christians strive to impress themselves 
and others, that they, indeed, exemplify, illustrate 
and adorn the Christian requirement. It is hoped, 
many of them measurably do. There is sedulousness 
in the observance of externals, of church going, in 
the devotion of a very small per-centum of gain to be- 
nevolent enterprises. There are in every commun- 
ity, worthy ones, struggling to rise from inherited 
poverty, or Providential misfortunes. It is rare, that 
they are able to secure pecuniary help from prospered 
ones, friends or brethren, except on the best security, 
and then, on high interest — compounded if not paid 
when due. What did Jesus say ? If ye lend to them, 
of whom ye hope to receive, what merit can you 
claim ? even sinners lend to sinners to receive again 
as much. Lend, expecting no return. Luke, vi : 34, 35. 



VALUE OF USE OF MONEY VARIABLE. 245 

Thou shalt not lend on usury to thy brother. Deut. 
xxiii: 19. Usury, — percentage for the use of money or 
its equivalent, is not fixed, but variable. It is to be 
determined by the relative circumstances of the needy 
borrower and of the opulent lender, — their social or 
Christian relations. What would be excessive inter- 
est on one occasion, might not be on another. Any 
interest exacted at all, might in some cases be re- 
garded inconsiderate, whilst that which is above the 
legal might be a generous reduction from the valid 
rate. The value of the use of money, like that of 
every commodity, depends on the state of the market 
— on scarcity or abundance, demand as well as supply, 
security or risk. Thus Mammon tests and grades. 
The Christ tested money value otherwise. " Whoso," 
said an apostle, "hath the world's goods and seeth 
his brother in need, and shutteth up his compassion 
from him, how doth the love of God abide in him ? " 
I John iii: 17. True: help must be discriminate. The 
improvident and inf rugal, the prodigal and profligate 
are sometimes injured by indiscriminate aid. Suffer- 
ing is intended to discipline, refine and purify. Noth- 
ing else, often, will reveal one's folly to one's self. 
Improvidence, indolence, shiftlessness, nor wasteful- 
ness are to be countenanced or fostered. 

The truth must be told, and it is never slander. 
Many, if not the mass of Christian believers live, as 
if self, the world were to be sought first, God and the 
weal of others last. "Many," indeed many "will 
say unto me, in that day. Lord, Lord." The Lord 
will not know them ; not because they had not been 
members in good standing of some visible church on 



246 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

earth ; not because they were not regular in attend- 
ance on religious meetings, and in the performance 
of church duties; not because they did not pray with 
power and exhort with unction in the conference with 
their brethren, or in their individual families; not be- 
cause they were not good citizens in the world's re- 
pute; not because their exterior morality could not 
bear inspection; but because: "inasmuch as ye did it 
not to one of these least, ye did it not to Me," Matth. 
XXV : 45. 

The prime test of righteous character in commer- 
cial circles is integrity in word and deed. Men in 
them know, test, value each other mainly through out- 
ward conduct, not by their creeds or professions. Je- 
sus approved such test. It is as rigidly applied by 
discerning members of the same church in their se- 
cular transactions with their brethren, as by world- 
lings with each other. The crucible is fiery, and the 
alembic no respecter of persons. No distinction of 
saints and sinners on " Change." More likely, a smooth, 
sanctimonious, sly devil will be looked for under the 
cowl of religious pretension, than a meek, transparent, 
true saint. ^ When one comes down from the holy 
heights of Zion to touch or to handle material things, 

I. Kindness and sincerity which are malice and design. A 
devilish humor under a demure look. — Dr. South. 

A clean face and garment, with a foul soul. An angel abroad, 
a devil at home, and worse when an angel than when a devil. — 
Bishop Hall. 

He's a leech in his dispositions, he's a screw and a wice in his 
actions, a snake in his twistings, and a lobster in his claws. — 
Bleak House. 



INTEGRITY THE TEST OP BIGHTEOUS CHARACTER. 247 

— money, stocks, merchandise ; if he is avaricious, 
grasping, rapacious, an intriguer, treacherous, unre- 
liable, not punctual, a disregarder of promises, of pe- 
cuniary obligations; a previous reputation for saintli- 
ness as a minister, deacon, elder, secretary of a Mis- 
sionary society, editor, or pillar in some church, will 
not serve long to conceal his true character from ap- 
prehension, or cover him from the reprobation of his 
fellow men, when the mask is torn off. If the fire of 
men's judgments in this world is not endurable, how 
can the " consuming fire " of God's scrutiny be with- 
stood, "in the day when He shall judge the secrets of 
men by Jesus Christ?" 

The voice of the people — the common judg- 
ments of men upon each other are generally cor- 
rect, though sometimes grossly unjust. Sometimes, 
centuries elapse ere those unjust verdicts are re- 
versed. These human judgments might be re- 
garded in a sense as the voice of God, were the knowl- 
edge of each other — inclusive of motives and circum- 
stances, perfect. They are often more correct ex- 
pressions of the voice of God respecting individuals, 
than those of ecclesiastical societies, with which they 
may be connected. Those of the latter are often 
based on restricted evidence, — mere profession, ex- 
ternal observance, manifestation of emotions, dis- 
play of gifts, and they are the conclusions of those 
within their ranks, — not modified by the report of 
them who are without. The lenses of observation are 
sectarian, and are therefore, party-colored. The ob- 
servation is mainly restricted to one day. That of 
outsiders ranges through six days out of seven, at 



248 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

such times and under such circumstances, when they 
are not conscious of being observed, and when real 
principles of conduct and the prevailing state of the 
heart w^ill be unmistakably revealed. The judgment 
of a community upon the character of a man is the 
combined result of close observation and scrutiny for 
many years, from many points of observation; myr- 
iads of scrutinizing eyes have been upon him all this 
while, so that every single observation may be said 
to be the complement of all others, making the final 
verdict of the whole complete. Professions influence, 
only as they are in harmony with one's life; when in- 
harmonious, they but make the hypocrisy or the self- 
deception more glaring. This final verdict, this ulti- 
mate adjudication upon the character of a man, is in- 
deed a judgment day to him in this world; is, to a 
great extent, the anticipated voice of God, — to be re- 
affirmed, doubtless, in many, if not in most instances, 
at the last by the Omniscient Himself. True : many 
popular judgments of a time will be reversed. Some 
will rise from dark eclipse to shine aloft like stars. 
The glitter and the glare of others will sink into the 
blackness of darkness. Merciful it has been, that 
such a voice of history has carried with it much of 
the potency of God's voice; if it indeed was not, in 
verity, that awful utterance speaking through the 
minds and hearts of men. If it had not been for 
these impressive verdicts from age to age, how would 
the theological errors, the false teachings, and the 
still more fallible practices of ecclesiastics and eccles- 
iastical bodies have been corrected? Was there ever 
a crime practiced by men, that did not, at some time. 



THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE THE VOICE OF GOD. 249 

find a refuge in some professed sanctuaries of the liv- 
ing God? Have not intemperance, slavery, concu- 
binage, simony, other gTcat crimes been at times thus 
sheltered, if not tolerated and defended? Has not 
this "voice of God" from without been potent to rev- 
olutionize and to purify within ? Would this inward 
purification have ensued otherwise? It is feared not. ^ 
To such reduction must all men sooner or later 
come, even in this world. Some may from worldly 
policy, fear, or sectarian zeal, attempt to shield from 
adequate condemnation, ungodliness in a brother 
church member, — so "wrap it up," be silent in com- 
ment or reference ; nevertheless, they, even, will assent 
in heart to the justness of the verdict and the con- 
demnation ; be as hesitant and reluctant to entrust to 
such one their goods and chattels, their real and per- 

I. The voice of the j>eo;ple, the voice of God. — The proverb rests 
on the assumption that the foundations of man's being are laid in 
the truth ; and thus, that there is no conviction which is really a 
conviction of the universal humanity, but rests on a true ground ; 
no faith which is indeed the faith of mankind, but has a reality 
corresponding to it. For, as Jeremy Taylor has said, " it is not a 
vain noise when many nations join their voices in the attestation 
or detestation of an action." 

This man or that, this generation or the other might be de- 
ceived, but all men and all generations could not. — Trench. 

Public opinion has ubiquity, and a species of omniscience; and 
there is no power on earth so stern in its character, so steady in 
its movements, so irresistible in its sway. — Protestant Jesuitism. 

All national character is gradually produced by the daily ac- 
tion of circumstances, of which each day's results seem so insig- 
nificant as not to be worth mentioning; one would see that what is 
trifling, when viewed in its increments, may be formidable when 
viewed in its sum total. — Herbert Spencer. 



250 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

sonal, as are publicans and sinners. What, what is 
there left of worth in a man, when his honor is gone? 
when his words and deeds, proving unreliable, are de- 
structible, therefore are consumed? 

When faith is lost, when honor dies, 
The man is dead ! i 

And who is sufficient for these things? He alone, 
who is in Christ. If any man build upon the foun- 
dation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stub- 
ble; each man's work shall become manifest, . . . 
because it shall be revealed through fire; and the fire 
shall prove the work of each man, of what sort it is. 
ICor. iii:12, 13. 

" For none of us liveth to himself, and none dieth 
to himself." Child of the Divine Father by creation, 
having been reconciled to Him, he is not his own. 
Therefore, not solely from constraint will he give 
heed to requirements of discipleship; his service for 
the weal of others will be willing, and thus will it ef- 
fectually honor and serve the Being Who made and 
has rescued him from perdition. Christianity is de- 
signed to eradicate, or to properly repress selfishness 
in each heart. How many such reconciled ones could 
bear the test should they be summoned for the in- 
quisition? How many of you, isolated individuals, 
not involved in duties and responsibilities as heads of 
families, are living primarily for Christian service to 
others? Do you, professedly commissioned to speak 
life-words, as though God Himself were beseeching 
men through you to be reconciled to Him,— -do you oc- 
cupy your position mainly for service to others, or 

I. Whittier. 



CHRISTIANS MUST EFFLORESCE IN GOOD DOING. 251 

chiefly for its emoluments, its dignities, its special 
privileges, its means of discipline and culture? Let 
the Omniscient, your own conscience witness and re- 
spond. The quest cannot be put by. The fire will 
try every one's work of what sort it is. 

It is reaffirmed, and it cannot too often be urged 
upon the attention of Christendom, that no religious 
system, no section of Christian faith, no form of pre- 
senting it, no Christian sect can permanently influ- 
ence humanity which do not effloresce in good doing. 
The land may be studded with houses for worship, 
gorgeous temples may be erected in the large cities, 
able and brilliant expositors of their creeds may be 
installed in them; they will not signify more to the 
multitudes than so many heathen pagodas. The cre- 
denda taught and enforced may be clearly cut, sharply 
defined, transparent and symmetrical as a prism ; — it 
may be a perfect and resplendent Calvinistic penta- 
hedron; it will have no more spiritual power than a 
proposition in Euclid; perhaps not so much, since 
that can be mathematically demonstrated and out- 
lined, — be materially applied. O church member! O 
Sabbath goer and prayer meeting devotee! realize, 
that without the fruits of good doing, thy sectarian 
creed, thy Christian profession, thy fidelity and as- 
siduity in the performance of external duties, thy 
scrupulosity in the observance of commands external, 
thy public prayers, exhortations and songs of praise, 
thy sanctimonious tones, casts, attitudes, postures and 
expressions will be regarded sham and cant, if not 
hypocrisy, by the sharp-sighted of the world. Thy 
religious pretensions will be hooted at, — privately it 



252 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

may be, from prudential considerations, more scorn- 
fully than if thou wert a poor Chinese or Japanese 
burning incense to his Joss, for "consistency is a 
jewel." 

"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the 
kingdom of God." The best evidence of the trans- 
formation of a soul is the change wrought in the daily 
life. It is not so apparent in the young, whose nat- 
ural selfishness has not become intensified by in- 
dulgence and habit, during months and years. The 
process of sanctification commences with an effort to 
restrain and purify one's natural selfishness. If that 
element in original constitution be prominent; if pre- 
vious occupation for scores of years has specially 
tended to educe and to sharpen it; and if the spiritual 
revolution has been delayed till the meridian of life 
has come, what a struggle is before him 1 Such one is 
to be pitied and prayed for, charitably and patiently 
borne by those who can thank God that they are not 
such as he, and by all others, if they will. — In the in- 
quest and adjudication upon a man, — a Christian man, 
his original constitution, his previous life and pres- 
ent circumstances are to be considered. 

Constitutional selfishness in the Astors, the Vander- 
bilts, the Goulds, was not, is not, probably, more dis- 
proportioned to other elements in their nature, than 
it is in ordinary men. Their talent for acquisi- 
tion was great. Their extraordinary success 
in the accumulation of money was generally the 
result of extraordinary foresight, and the closest at- 
tention to the conditions of material aggregation, — 
the exercise of intellectual qualities; above all, to fa- 



BUSINESS AND AGRICULTURAL LIFE. 253 

voring providences, allotted them, doubtless, for wise 
purposes by their Maker, without which they could 
not have thus succeeded. Once in the full tide of accu- 
mulation, and, in the exercise of such qualities, and by 
the continuation of such favoring providences, they 
were without difficulty borne onward to great for- 
tunes. Such minds with such constantly enlarging 
experiences, with acquiring habits intensified, can- 
not remain inactive. They must move forward. The 
simple care of what they have acquired inevitably 
adds more. It is not long before their entire thought 
and time are absorbed in this care. 

Now: let the business lives of such men be pro- 
tracted to the age of Methuselah, or even one or more 
centuries, ever gathering and heaping up, without 
distribution in good use, what a terror, — what a curse 
would they become to the rest of the human family! 

Most persons, — of those even who bear the Christ- 
ian name, engage in professional or business life, pri- 
marily and chiefly for their own personal advantage 
without regard for the weal of others. Many there 
are, doubtless, that give themselves to it religiously, 
because they believe it is their mission. They would 
not, in the slightest, deflect from rectitude and from 
regard for their neighbor's interest as for their own. 
But, in cities especially, if not elsewhere, success, 
according to worldly interpretation, is conditioned 
on successful competition with others. In this re- 
spect, believers are on a common level with unbe- 
lievers. There is the goal, and here is the dusty race 
course packed with ambitious aspirants — all self-seek- 
ing, so far as can be discerned. 



254 THE CHEIST IN LIFE. 

Agricultural life does not seem to be encompassed 
with difficulties, trammeled with conditions to such 
extent. Success in the tillage of the soil seems de- 
pendent on Providence, on material conditions more 
than on human forecast, skill and industry. True 
enough : it is in this, as in all other professions, God 
helps those only who help themselves, and no harvest 
will come without seed sowing and culture, most as- 
siduous attention, careful observance of times and sea- 
sons. But these human elements are all profitless 
without the divine ones of sunshine, the early and 
the latter rain, and they are not proof against ex- 
tremes of heat and cold, of protracted rain and 
drought, against storms and hurricanes, — the rust, the 
chinch bug and the army worm. True also it is : the 
sway of human hearts, and contingencies in business 
are as subject to supreme sway of Providence as sun- 
shine, storms, rain, flames, mildew and the weevil. 
The homily is to the mechanic, the artisan, the mer- 
chant — men of all professions, as to the agriculturist: 
He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand; 
but the hand of the diligent maketh rich. Prov. x: 4. 
The hand of the diligent shall bear rule, but the sloth- 
ful shall be under tribute. Prov. xii : 24. The soul 
of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing; but the 
soul of the diligent shall be ma^e fat. Prov. xiii: 4. 

The inquiry of the thoughtful and conscientious, 
who desire and profess to follow their Master in bus- 
iness, must press itself. How can I compete with my 
neighbor and love him as myself? This is indeed a 
very serious and practical question for disciples every 
day. The Master requires it, and authorizes the 



PRINCIPLES IN CONDUCTING BUSINESS. 255 

world to expect it from them. The determination 
turns on the motive, the end, and the means em- 
ployed. 

The motive dominant, this stamps the work 
With its own likeness. 

Very many, if not most think they cannot succeed, un- 
less competitor is borne down, crippled or left behind 
to fall in the race at last. Hence, at a certain stage, some, 
not being content to wield their resources exclusively 
for their own success, commence efforts to destroy 
their competitors. They undertake to justify their 
course on the assumption that their self-preservation 
demands it.^ It is not believed, that such an alterna- 
tive is forced by Providence on men. The most that 
is allowable in a Christian, it is believed, is to act on 
the defensive, to protect himself from injury. If in 
doing strictly and only that, the assailing competitor 
is injured, the responsibility therefore devolves upon 
him alone. It is not believed, the Savior demands that 
his disciples be passive and unresisting, while assail- 
ants undertake to destroy their lives, their material 
interests or their reputation. "Resist not evil, etc./' 
of Matth. v:39, retaliate not upon the evil doer, re- 
venge not thyself on him who would do thee wrong or 
has done it, comes in to modify, if not entirely to restrain 
and suppress. Jesus, in order that His declarations on 
this topic might be distinctly understood, ran a par- 
allel between them and "the traditions of the elders," 
showing that in many instances, they were totally dis- 

I. The selfish people, selfishness is simply self-defence; to re- 
nounce it, is to evacuate one's intrenched position ; to surrender, 
at disp-gtipn to the enemy. — Ecce Homo. 



256 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

similar. He had, in the verse immediately preceding 
the 39th, quoted the legem ialionisoi "old time," "an 
eye for an eye, — a tooth for a tooth." He taught that 
those who would follow Him, should not undertake 
to redress injuries in person, reputation, business, es- 
tate, under the control of a retaliatory spirit. What- 
ever is done in that direction must be from a higher 
and holier motive. Indeed, some injuries the wronged 
must not undertake to redress at all. For some wrongs 
there is often no repair in the present life. They 
must be left to the vindication of God, and in the life 
eonian. Vengeance is His. But it is evident, from 
the constitution of things, as well as from many spe- 
cific teachings, and the general drift of the Bible, that 
all evil and all evil-doers are to be resisted to the ut- 
termost from the highest considerations. The resist- 
ance is due to society, to the wrong-doer himself to 
keep him from adding sin to sin. The injunctions are, 
— "Resist the Devil." "Take unto thyself the whole 
armor of God," that the enjoined one may be able to 
resist successfully. It surely cannot be unchristian 
to contend for truth, right, justice, as earnestly as do 
the Adversary and all his emissaries against them. 

It is possible, then, for a Christian to be occupied 
in the same business with another, and to love him as 
himself. It is indeed a difficult requirement. But it 
is believed, it is possible, otherwise his Father would 
not place him in such circumstances, and make such 
exaction from him. The word "occupy" is not nec- 
essarily inclusive of competition, — creature of a selfish 
and self-seeking motive impelling and controlling, — 
excluding regard for another as for one's self. It can- 



COMPETITION NOT THE END OF BUSINESS. 257 

not be believed, that a Christian has a right to engage 
in business, for the sake of surpassing or crush- 
ing a rival . He, then, cannot love him as himself. 
His must be a higher and holier end. It must be to 
do his individual work, for which he is fitted and com- 
missioned, to glorify his Maker, and thus do good to 
his fellows. 

Must, then, Christians refrain from engaging in bus- 
iness, to which they think they are called by their 
original constitution, their predilections, their prov- 
idential training and circumstances, because in the 
act of so doing, they really or apparently come into 
competition or conflict with the interests of others ? 
Certainly not. It is evident, that competition must 
not be the original motive and end of such action, but 
for the higher and nobler ones stated. It is evident, 
likewise, that for such rightful purposes, they must 
guard against the control or inter-mixture of com- 
petitory motive for the mere sake of surpassing, — of 
pecuniary enrichment by the impoverishment of an- 
other, — of building up a business on the ruin of a ri- 
val or competitor. Surely, if one says or does anything 
to hinder or embarass his mechanical, professional or 
trade neighbor, he certainly does not love him as him- 
self. Indeed, more : If he does not desire the suc- 
cess of that neighbor as much as his own, he cannot, 
so far, be Christ's consistent disciple. 

It becomes, then, an inquiry of the gravest charac- 
ter every day, not only as to acts, but as to motives, 
ends and speech: how a Christian can conduct bus- 
iness successfully, — which in the world's parlance 

lY 



258 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

means the acquisition of money, and surpass com- 
petitors, without trenching upon their rights and in- 
terests? Here is the labor; here is the task. If thou 
dost sincerely desire to test the character of thy bus- 
iness, and the manner in which thou dost conduct it — 
whether it be according to God or the Devil, thou 
canst easily do it by bringing it in contact with the 
Sermon on the Mount. Certainly, all are not called 
to be apostles and expounders of the Word. Many, 
most must engage in the business of the world, and 
there must be a way of integrity in it, as respects 
God and neighbor. The first question in the morn- 
ing, ere the believer goes out into the strife of bus- 
iness, should be: Shall I demonstrate myself a 
Christian to-day by unselfishness, by refraining from 
unmanly, un-Christ-like conduct in my secular af- 
fairs ? and Avhen the shadows of night come, and he is 
about to commit his body and soul to rest, — thus to 
enter into solemn inquisition of his acts and motives 
for the day, lighted up by the fire of God's spirit: 
Have I been, the past hours of this day. Godly or 
ungodly? Have I done unto others, as I would they 
should do unto me ? If not, may God forgive me. 
May I do so no more. Help me. Father ! on the mor- 
row to grapple more successfully with evil in the 
world, and with selfishness in my own heart, and to 
get the supreme victory. Unless there is this intro- 
spection, this scrutiny within, there will be trouble 
in the future for the poor athlete. There is the dying 
hour, and There 

the action lies 



In its true nature. 



CHRISTIANS SCRUTINIZED IN THEIR BUSINESS. 259 

Is it affirmed, that it is impossible to limit, test 
closely all motives, words, acts, in business, — to thus 
hedge about one's self every day? 'Tis not impossible. 
God certainly requires it. The account for its neg- 
lect will have to be rendered. The exercise by rep- 
etition, passing into habit, becomes easy in discharge; 
so that to do good, to be unselfish, by grace may be- 
come as easy as to do evil, or as to be selfish. 

For use almost can change the stamp of nature, 
And either quell the devil or throw him out 
With wondrous potency ! 

Do business men, professedly Christian, consider 
how closely their conduct is scrutinized and tested, 
by the application to it of the precept of their Master, 
on the part of those who do not profess to be such ? Can 
they complain of this rigid scrutiny and test ? Certainly 
not. The Master has authorized it. Worldly men will 
know them in no other way. Many a business man, 
who is held to be a pillar in a church, has no such 
reputation on the street or in the marts of trade. 
Many a poor sinner has been hardened in sin, multi- 
tudes of them repelled from Christian influence, by 
the sordid, avaricious conduct of some deacon, elder, 
or prominent business man in a church, — developed 
in some hard bargain, some dishonorable intrigue, 
some treacherous and deceitful word, some insensi- 
bility to the wants and woes of those who have come 
in contact with them. ^ Church members — especially 

I. I have beheld more deliberate malice, more lying and cheat- 
ing, more backbiting and slandering, denser stupidity and greater 
self-sufficiency among bad-hearted and wrong-headed religionists, 
than among any other order of human beings. I have known 
more malignity and slander conveyed in the form of a prayer 



260 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

in all large communities, are summoned to consider 
the serious fact, which can neither be denied or 
blinked, that multitudes make the ungodly life of 
many of their number, the occasion of their stumbling 
and of the rejection of the Gospel. True: such re- 
jection cannot be justified on such grounds. "Every 
one must answer for himself," not for another. Never- 
theless, any responsibility for the cavilling, the stum- 
bling, and the hardening of a soul and for its subse- 
quent loss, is fearful. 

If, in endeavoring to execute this behest of the 
Master, through his superior physical or mental en- 
dowments; from greater energy and industry; from 
more favorable circumstances; evident combination 
of providences on his behalf; a believer should sur- 
pass his neighbor in the acquisition of wealth or in- 
fluence, in the attainment of position or power, can 
he be justly chargeable with not loving his neighbor 
as himself? Certainly not. Doubtless, weightier re- 
sponsibilities, through all the stages of his prosperity, 
will rest upon him who seems to be thus provident- 

than should have consigned anj ordinary libeler to the pillorj. 
I have known a person who made evening prayer a means of in- 
furiating and stabbing the servants, under the pretext of confes- 
sing their sins. — Recreations of a Country Parson. 

The Moslems have a proverb to this effect: " If your neighbor 
has made the pilgrimage to Mecca once, watch him ; if twice 
avoid his society ; if three times, move into another street. — Land 
and the Booh. 

" He can talk about the love of Christ, but he is a terrible screw 
at a bargain," they say. Ah brother! have mercy! the world 
screws vis, and then we are tempted to screw the world. — Old 
Toivn Folks. 



THE SUCCESSFUL HELPING THE UNSUCCESSFUL. 261 

ially favored. He is accountable for the right and 
best use of his gifts and his opportunities : he fails to 
"occupy" them at his peril. The same is true of his 
neighbor. Has the Queen or the Prime Minister of 
Great Britain, the President or the Chief Justice of 
the United States, abilities, — are their opportunities, 
superior to those of ordinary men, — millions beneath 
them in private life or official station ? Then are their 
responsibilities commensurate. No disjunction of 
them is possible. 

But do not the spirit of his Master and His com- 
mands require of such a successful disciple, that he 
relinquish some of his rights, — omit to avail himself 
fully of the advantages, which superior capacity, 
knowledge, experience, capital, previous success se- 
cure to him in advance, that his inferior, unsuccessful, 
unfortunate brother man may have an opportunity 
to obtain, for himself and his, the necessities of life, 
if not a competence? Surely they do. And it is be- 
lieved, that much more is required; that the prospered 
one, — believer or unbeliever, lend a helping hand to 
lift up the poor and needy to his material level,— - 
even to descend somewhat himself, if necessary, to 
lift him up; that he seek for opportunities to do this; 
remembering that he too has been assisted by others, 
otherwise he could not have attained to such heights 
of material prosperity; notforgettingthat God in His 
singular providences has helped him. He is bound 
to do it; otherwise he fails to give one of the best 
evidences that he is a true witness of his Master. The 
basal principle of Christianity is a leveling one, — 
down as well as up, — the rich down, and the poor up. 



262 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

It is painful to observe, that material prosperity, 
instead of softening the heart of the recipient, oftener 
seems to indurate, to indispose him to assist others in 
the same way by which he himself has been aided. 
There are curmudgeons in every community, who, 
after having used others as instruments, and as step- 
ping stones, by which they have been enabled to as- 
cend the ladder of fortune, will not give or loan a 
groat to help others to rise in the same direction, — not 
even those whom they used, or who, even, assisted 
them in their time of need, except on ample secur- 
ity, and high interest compounded if not paid at 
maturity. Among the forlorn of earth, though having 
great possessions, such are conspicuous. Wait till their 
funerals. Count, then, the sincere, not the profes- 
sional or the interested mourners. Note what woe is 
implicated in the response, represented as being given 
to the cry of such: Remember: that thou in thy life- 
time received' st thy good things, and Lazarus in like 
manner evil things; but now, here, he is comforted, and 
thou art in anguish. Lukexvi:25. 

If, then, no one must be supremely selfish, self- 
seeking, self-centering in his schemes of life, no 
one must be idle. The eternal command to all is: 

" Occupy till I COme^^ — -Kpayiiax^baaa^t i(o<; Mp^ofxai^ be 

engaged in business according to thy peculiar ability; 
place to use thy talent or thy pound, one or many as 
they may be, until I come for the return of principal 
enhanced by value of its use. In the parable of the 
five talents, with the ten pounds — symbols both of the 
various gifts and opportunities bestowed upon men, is 
that significant statement — he gave to ixd<TTw xard 



EVERY ONE HAS A MISSION. 263 

TTjv idtav duva/jiiv — each man according to liis ability. 
Each one is summoned to some mission in life — to 
make the most of himself and of his opportunities. 
"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it mth all 
thy might." " Go work to-day in my vineyard." There 
is work for thee, O man! whoever thou art; thy pe- 
culiar work, whatever thou canst best do, that is thine. 
Ascertain thy mission, and then be occupied therewith. 
For this thou must, measurably at least, know thyself, 
thy capacities, thine infirmities, thy proclivities, thy 
desires, thy tastes, thy adaptation to any particular 
work; withal, — be endeavoring to comprehend the 
providential voice speaking to thee out of thy circum- 
stances. Some are called to cultivate the earth, oth- 
ers, to prosecute the various mechanical professions. 
Some, to make laws, others, to expound and to execute 
them. Some, to investigate, classify and interpret 
phenomena in mind and matter, and others, to instruct 
the young in them. Some are summoned to handle 
the money and the merchandise of earth, others to 
embody ideals of truth, beauty, goodness, in poetry, 
painting, sculpture, music and architecture. Some, 
to be expounders of ethics and religion; others, with 
lips touched with hallowed fire — to be message-bear- 
ers of the truth in the Christ to men. Some, even, 
to be hewers of wood and drawers of water, — scaven- 
gers, perhaps, till God in providence summons them 
to a higher vocation. Better be a scavenger than a 
gambler in grain, pork or cotton. God spake unto 
Moses, saying: See: I have called by name Bezaleel, 
the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah: 
and I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wis- 



264 THE CHKIST IN LIFE. 

dom and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in 
all manner of workmanship : to devise cunning works 
in gold, silver and brass, in cutting of stones and carv- 
ing ot timber. . . in all manner of workmanship. 
Ex. 31:1-5 

Lord, Master! help each one of us to be diligent 
and faithful in our various vocations, to be skillful in 
the touch upon souls we daily encounter, and in the 
efforts for their edification, that they and we may 
grow up to Him in all things — full-grown men, unto 
the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we may fi- 
nally receive the commendation: Well done! 'Tis 
" better to build a beautiful human creature than a 
beautiful dome." ^ 

No one, then, has a right to be indolent, for " in this 
theatre of man's life, it is reserved only for God and 
angels to be lookers-on." But neither do they idly 
look on. Incessantly do they work. Rest there may 
be, but only for increased vigor in the resumption of 
toil. Jesus said: " My Father worketh hitherto, and 
I work." And angels " minister." Every one is bound 
to be a servitor in some department of physical or 
mental toil. Men must have subsistence. Yet, it may 
become necessary to die, rather than to live. Better 
to die than to do wrong, for death is by no means the 
greatest calamity that can befall one. If prepared to 
die, the day that thou fearest as thy last, will be the 
Birth-Day of Eternity to thy soul. Men do not live 
by bread alone: 

By every word of God have lived and flourished 
The good men, and the great, 
Aye, not by bread alone. 2 
1, Ruskin. 2. Kathrina. 



CONDITIONS OF SUCCESS. 265 

Christian enterprises must be sustained, but not by 
I'obbery, for this, God says, He hates. Money is con- 
\renient, instrumental, — a material necessity for ma- 
terial wants; yet God alone is essential. "The Lord 
is able to give " His children "much more than this." 
It is right to seek it for good ends. It is a gift of 
God. The lote of it, not itself, is the "root of evil." 
In efforts for its acquisition, some will succeed, oth- 
ers will not, — according to their gifts, industry, op- 
portunities and providences. There is no alternative 
but submission, cheerful acquiescence, when those 
providences are seemingly adverse. Blessed is that 
unsuccessful one who can thus graciously submit. Is 
it not a Father who interposes ? Does He not know 
best ? And will it not be infinitely better for the dis- 
appointed child since the Father has thus decreed? 

In cities, where business men, on account of the 
sharpness and unscrupulosity of others, are driven to 
depend mainly on their wits and energies for success, 
it is questionable, whether in very many instances 
they have regarded their neighbors' interests as they 
have their own, when they have been successful in 
money-getting. And how can a professed disciple 
follow his Master, — indeed how can he be a genuine 
disciple at all, if he does not heed His teachings? 
The world will have the best in everything, withal 
the cheapest, and that in the shortest possible time. 
If thou canst meet such imperative and exhaustive 
requisition upon thee, simple one! thou art wanted; 
if not, gei out of the way^ thou wilt be trodden down. 
Be assured, if in thy business thou wouldst be self- 
denying, strictly just, strictly honest, truly sincere. 



266 THE CHEIST IN LIFE. 

not double-minded, free from all guile, straight-for- 
ward, trying to have regard for thy neighbor as for 
thyself; thou shalt have tribulation, that is, thou shalt 
be flailed. This is the heritage of all true disciples. 
Out of refining fire thou mayst come purified, with 
the image and superscription of thy Master stamped 
upon thee. If thou canst do the required thing, — the 
best, the cheapest and the quickest, then, be content 
very often, to wait a long time for thy pay, that thy 
screwing patron may be able to use the principal and 
interest of thy dues in some other traffic; iliou art the 
man for him; thou mayst "succeed;" — this last, how- 
ever, is conditioned on thy diligence and wit in col- 
lection. If thou art not such an one, thou wilt not 
"succeed;" thou mightest as well be dead, so far as 
the business of this world is concerned. Money-mak- 
ers will have no use for thee. Go down to thy place 
meekly, uncomplainingly, — servitor for some one, or 
for some thing, — by the day or the hour, and take thy 
stipend. There's thy level, with this satisfaction, per- 
haps, that thou, at last, hast " touched bottom." The 
deacon or the shrewd brother in the same church will 
not discriminate in thy favor, between thee and the 
infidel, the profane swearer, the dram drinker, the in- 
triguer, and the dishonest defrauders of their em- 
ployees. If thou canst not do as they do, the things 
which they can; why should he? Does he not live to 
make money? Can he succeed in it, favoring thee? Has 
he not a "competitor?" Besides: he may have mort- 
gaged in advance a tithe of that money expected to 
be made, to the Lord. If the Lord will do thus and 
so to me, then will I do thus and so to Him — to the 



NO FRIENDSHIP IN BUSINESS. 267 

extent of a iUhe. On the Lord's Day, and perhaps 
in the weekly prayer meeting, he serves God — that is, 
it is presumed he does; on week days, he serves him- 
self. Who art thou, that thou shouldst judge thy 
brother, in any secret misgiving? He oscillates, as do 
most souls, between God and Mammon, gravitating, 
it must be charitably supposed, the strongest towards 
God. ^^ No friendship in hiisiiiesSy'* is the commercial 
cry, when mercy, leniency, patience, forbearance 
are plead for by a needy, suffering one. " No friend- 
ship in business." No God! no Christ! no neighbor! 
self and Devil uppermost, foremost all the time! 
" Every man for himself, and the Devil take the hind- 
most." All "successful" come, sooner or later, to 
this realization. Thou must come to it, or go down. 
Come thou to it, simpleton! or be ground to powder 
'twixt the upper and nether millstones of competitor 
and patron. " No expectation of forbearance should 
be encouraged. Favor and benevolence are not the 
attributes of good business men. Strict justice and 
the rigid enforcement of contracts are their proper 
foundations." * 

Some, if not many professed believers, it is admitted, 
when they have been successful in the acquisition of 
wealth, have given large portions of it to Christian en- 
terprises — in the evening of life, or as bequests when 
they are dead, — to the endowment of a college or 
theological seminary, the sustentation of an elee- 
mosynary institution or of a mission. But the ques- 
tion is, did they strive for wealth with such primary 
end? Did they give themselves to this business as 

I. Motto of Bankers' and Merchants' Magazine. 



268 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

tlieir life-work, because from tliouglitf ul consideration 
of tlieir gifts and opportunities, they believed they 
were called to it? And was it from assurance, they 
could seek "first" the kingdom of God and His right- 
eousness, with greater efficiency in that vocation than 
in any other? Is that righteous kingdom more likely 
to be first found in the endowment of a charitable in- 
stitution, or in quick and direct relief to the individ- 
uals for whom, professedly, it is endowed? — for stone, 
brick or wood structures, or persons in want? 
for an impecunious corporation, or a suffering soul? 
Is it to be sought Jirstj io-day, in all the flush of 
health and activity — the hey-day of life, or sometime 
in the indefinite future, in the decline and decrepitude 
of age, when the poor soul has little or no further 
use of material possessions, — no longer can be pam- 
pered by them ? Is it first to be sought, to-day, in the 
consecration and direct employment of the Lord's tal- 
ent intrusted, or when dead, through its adminstra- 
tion by another, having been carefully infolded and 
hoarded in a napkin of bequest? These are search- 
ing interrogatories, and should be met. And, without 
unlawfully passing judgment upon the motives of 
men, — for God alone can accurately discern them, and 
Jesus has bid all beware of hasty, indiscriminate esti- 
mates of them, yet has authorized knowledge of char- 
acter by the "fruits" of conduct, — not only in money- 
giving, but in other developments of interior state, — 
from them all, in totality, as revealing the substance 
of character; the previous lives of some of these 
munificent donors impress, that personal renown, in- 
stead of regard for God, His glory, and the good of 



BENEVOLENCE WHILE LIVING. '2G9 

men, was the controlling end that inspired such j&nal 
benefactions. Else why have many, if not most of 
them, lived previously in such a sordid manner — ab- 
sorbed week out, week in for scores of years in ma- 
terial accumulation, as if there was no higher end of 
living, and no account of their stewardship to be ren- 
dered at the last? Why did they not manifest more 
sensibility for suffering men, women and children 
they daily encountered? Why did they not minister 
of their abundance to these necessitous ones as they 
went along, not wait until their barns burst with 
plenty, — with evident intent of pulling them down 
in order to build larger; when the premonitory voice 
of God came in some disease, some quaking of the 
body, some ominous knocking at the door of the heart, 
some lightning-like throb in the brain, that death was 
nigh the portals, with requisition for his soul ? ^ Why 

I. Christ's main teachings, by direct order, by earnest parable, 
and by his own permanent emotion, regard the use and misuse 
of money. 

It can be said of every rich man, without much chance of being 
wrong, that either he or one of his ancestors was a conqueror, a 
thief, extortioner or a sordid person. — Ruskin. 

Twenty thousand thieves landed at Hastings. These founders 
of the House of Lords were greedy and ferocious dragoons, sons 
of ferocious pirates, . . . decent and dignified inen now ex- 
isting boast their descent from these filthy thieves. — Emerson. 

Well, after saving, and pinching, and scraping, and stealing, and 
freezing, and starving, curmudgeon the skeleton comes face to 
face with another skeleton, Death, and that fleshless form, with 
an ironic grin, huddles him away, — and he is remembered only by 
those he has cheated. 

He would be willing to take the beain out of his own eye if he 
knew he could sell the timber. — Whifple. 



270 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

did they not do as their Exemplar enjoined and 
practiced, — distribute, encountering every day the 
children of want and sorrow ? Why were their hearts 
so steeled against human woe ? Why did the ice of 
their insensibility not melt until the grave yawned in 
prospect, and they were compelled to confront the 
ghastly fact, that they could not take with them into 
that gaping grave, and into that unknown Thereafter, 
their sordid if not their ill-gotten gains? As if ben- 
efactions in such hour would atone for life's neglect, 
miserliness, niggardliness, and insure eternal life! As 
if a mere reputation for benevolence, — shadow without 
substance, would not rot, when the searching judg- 
ments of men, and the inquest of an omniscient God 
sat upon it! "How much life teaches us, that what- 
ever is beyond enough breeds worms, and becomes of- 
fensive !" ^ O men ! build no longer on such foundations 
as "gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble," 
" for the fire shall test every man's work of what sort 
it is." 

If Jesus should come to subject to the fiery-test of 
His analysis the Christian professions of the best mem- 
bers of the best churches in the land, would the last 
result, — the residuum be anything purer, more disin- 
terested than refined selfishness ? ^ Business integ- 

1. F. W. Robertson. 

2. Their system is a sort of worldly-spiritualism, cliqueism ; 
they really look on the rest of mankind as a doomed carcass which 
is to nourish them for heaven. ... It was a principle with Mr* 
Bulstrode to gain as much power as possible, that he might use it 
for the glory of God. He went through a great deal of spiritual 
conflict and inward argument in order to adjust his motives, and 
make clear to himself what God's glory required. . . The years 



REFINED SELFISHNESS. 271 

rity in them, — amiability, benevolence, generosity, re- 
finement, fidelity to convictions, conscientiousness en- 
lightened or unenlightened, unquestionably would be 
found. They would be, not only very zealous in "con- 
tention for the faith once delivered to the saints " as 
they apprehended it, and active in its propagation, 
but apparently "filled with the spirit" in the unc- 
tion of prayer, the fervor of exhortation and the ec- 
stasy of praise, as well as very liberal in the conse- 
cration of a large percentage of the income of their 
fixed and growing substance to Christian enterprises, 
for the relief of the poor and the needy ; in a word, 

had been perpetually spinning pleas into intricate thickness like 
masses of spider web, padding the moral sensibility ; nay, as age 
made egoism more eager but less enjoying, his soul had become 
more saturated with the belief, that he did every thing for God's 
sake, being indifferent to it for his own.,- Middlemarch. 

Mr, D. is well known as a powerful lay-preacher, and his ap- 
peals during periods of great religious interest have been helpful 
to the conversion of many souls, but his capacity for converting 
bonds is not less remarkable. — Atlantic Monthly^ July '6c?. 

I say there's something out o' kilter in that commonwealth, and 
in that country and in that lot o' human creeturs, and in them 
ways of rulin', and in them ways of thinkin', and in God's world 
itself, when a man ken spend forty thousand dollars on the plate- 
glass winders of his house, and I ken work industrious and hon- 
est all my life and be beholden to the State of Massachusetts for 
my poor-US vittles when I'm sixty-six year old. — Bijah Mudge^ in 
Silent Partners. 

I like to see a parson with his silk stockin's and great gold- 
headed cane, a lollopin' in his carriage behind his fat, prancin' bos- 
ses, comin' to meetin' to preach to us poor folks not to want to be 
rich! 

Folks allers preaches better on the vanity o' riches when they's 
in tol'able easy circumstances — Oldtoivn Stories. — Mrs. Stowc. 



272 ^ THE CHllIST IN LIFE. 

they would seem to be, according to the highest stan- 
dard yet attained, exemplary, symmetrical Christians. 
But, it would be noted, it was, in all probability, only 
a percentage devoted, rarely exceeding ten ; very ex- 
ceptional, when it reached to the *' one-half " of the 
mere income of the untouched capital; exceedingly 
rare, if ever heard of, — the devotion of "one-half* of 
the principal "goods" themselves, which Zaccheus 
said he gave " to the poor." Who hears of one giving 
"all" that he has to the service of His Master? 
Would it not. doubtless be the fact, that the primary 
end of their living, to the attainment of which, all 
other objects were constrained to be secondary and 
subsidiary, was to enhance the material and spiritual 
weal of their families? "Godliness is profitable unto 
all things, having promise of the life that now is," as 
well as "of that which is to come." Christians or un- 
believers blessed with vigorous health, prospered in 
the accumulation of material, intellectual and spiritual 
comforts, through observance of the conditions of 
such prosperity, cannot be otherwise than affable, 
amiable, refined, generous in intercourse with those 
beneath them, — mentally inferior, the providentially 
or the improvidently poor. It would be unnatural, 
at least, impolitic in them to demean themselves oth- 
erwise in the presence of their equals and superiors. 
Christianity, it is believed, goes deeper than this; it 
searches for the foundations ; it is designed to extend 
to the core of being; while it exacts, in ordinary life, 
merely the loving of one's neighbor as one's self in 
such relations; — in extraordinary emergencies, more, it 
is believed, is required, even the sacrifice of one's 



A NEW GOSPEL PREACHED. 273 

self, and all the" pet interests of self, that others, in 
material or spiritual want, may participate with them 
in the blessedness of the mental and heart service 
rendered, and in the enjoyment of the superabundant 
goods bestowed. If any one would come after Me, 
let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and 
follow Me. Matth. xvi:24, Mark viii:34:, Luke ix:23. 
Whosoever of you he be, that renounceth not all that 
he hath, or is not willing to, if it be required, cannot 
be My disciple. Luke xiv : 33. He that loveth father 
or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me : and 
he that loveth son or daughter more than Me is not 
worthy of Me. Matth. x: 37. The greater love may 
require one, sometimes, to lay down his life for his 
brother. 

A new gospel has recently been preached. The 
times have changed, it is said. Wealth has become 
a power in the evangelization of the world. Tyrants 
nor the avaricious, the sensual nor the voluptuous mo- 
nopolize it as they did at the opening of the Christian 
era. "Can the Christian safely float into this current? 
Certainly. The day of the anchorite is gone. A man 
ought to make money — honestly indeed, and with 
moderate haste, but with a hearty purpose. It is the 
means of enlarging his manhood. The very getting, 
if he do it rightly, is a minister to his growth. Men 
ought to be strong enough to give full swing to this 
impulse, and to grow stalwart in bearing the burdens 
of their accumulating. To hold one's self back from 
this, from fear of its too great power over him, is to 
confess himself weak and infantile. Make money. 

18 



274 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

Make it rightly. But by all means, let the making "be 
the servitor of your growth in manhood. . . Gath- 
er about you the appliances of culture, refinement 
and pleasure. Build fine houses, lay out ele- 
gant grounds, collect the treasures of art. "The 
earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof." The 
Christian is an heir of God, and God means that 
he shall have these things and enjoy them. Self- 
denial is for anchorites. For you, as soon and as 
fast as you can bear them, and get the money to buy 
them, are enjoyments, luxuries, fine equipage, beauti- 
ful surroundings, whatever will make the home happy, 
whatever will minister to your better desires, what- 
ever will make your nature rich, refined, exalted. . . 

"The millionaire cannot eat or wear all his income. 
These are the lower wants. For the rest, let him 
spend it on his higher nature. Thus will his wealth 
be a means to elevate him. The sphere of his wants 
will greatly increase, and this will increase commerce, 
and this will benefit mankind." ^ 

If material development, culture, civilization be the 
prime end of Christian living, — be seeking first the 
kingdom of God and His righteousness, then let all 
Christian believers hie themselves to the universal 
scramble for pelf and gain. But has human nature 
changed. Has Mammon? Is he not peculiarly the 
god of the world to-day? Was he ever worshiped 
with such fervor, intensity, splendor, and on so gigan- 
tic a scale before ? Has the Devil ? Can he not pos- 
sess a stock gambler, manipulate a Congressman, run 

I. Report of a lecture on *' Manhood and Money." — Chicago 
Advance. 



IS CIVILIZATION CHRISTIANITY? 275 

a French Emperor, a President, a Chicago Mayor as 
adroitly as he ensnared Eve, Ananias and Sapphira, 
and buffeted the Son of God? Has selfishness been 
extirpated? Has the millenium come? Is the 
spiritual condition of the world so much changed? 
What proportion of the thirteen hundred millions in 
it bearing the Christian name are Christians in very 
deed? How much of Asia is thoroughly evangelized, 
Christianly enUghtened? What is the condition of 
Jerusalem, of Antioch, of the localities where the 
"seven churches" were planted? How many saints 
of the apostolic type are in Europe, where Paul first 
flamed the torch of Truth, but which, Spencer or one 
of his disciples declares " contains a hundred millions 
of Pagans masquerading as Christians?" Are Eomans 
all brethren in Christ? Is Africa, — where the Gospel 
was so early introduced, leavened with the faith once 
delivered to the saints ? Are North and South America, 
after the lapse of three centuries? Are there no bad 
saints or good sinners in New York, Brooklyn, Boston, 
Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New Orleans and 
Chicago? Does Christian equality, of which Paul 
spoke, prevail among the masses ? Is his rule on the 
subject canonical .;)iow, or not? When God, through in- 
heritances, favoring providences, superior gifts, graces 
and opportunities has enabled some to accumulate 
more than they need for comfortable subsistence, are 
they bound, or are they not, by their Christian obli- 
gation, to distribute of that abundance to others who 
lack, and are, even, in gaunt want? 

Unless money would become source of corruption to 
Thy children, and conduce to reliance on material means 



276 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

instead of Thy Spirit's potency for the doing of Thy 
work; intrust, O Lord! a large amount of it to them, 
that they may use it for the Christianization of men. 
This is the cry of all who aspire for the prevalence of Thj- 
kingdom, as they walk the streets of the great cities, 
and behold what wealth is concentrated in the hands 
of those who wield it, not only for the accumulation 
of more, and for its own sake, but many of them for 
the demoralization and the oppression of humanity. 
The creed which they profess and practice is substan- 
tially, in the last analysis, the Epicurean, let us eat 
and drinkf for to-morrow we die. They recognize no 
future accountability, no coming Judgment, no Heaven, 
no Gehenna. Death, to them, is an eternal sleep. If 
they are right, we are wrong, and we have misappre- 
hended Thee and Thy commands. Thy people — as 
they compute, perhaps erroneously, must have ma- 
terial means to publish to every intelligent creature, 
"line upon line, precept upon precept," what Thou 
hast required. They must have means for the spread 
of Thy Truth, through the oral speech, and the print- 
ed Word — scattered as leaves, or winged to the ends 
of earth : or manifest Thyself specially without any 
human or material instrumentality or even of the 
written Word itself, that this terrific enginery of " the 
world, the flesh and the Devil," wrought and combined 
through money, may be grappled with, and made to 
serve for Thy glory and the weal of men, or be dis- 
abled for further diabolic use. 

In searching society for the best representatives of 
the unselfish Christ, the first resort, very naturally, is 
to the higher class of religionists in social station or 



PHARISAIC REALS OF THEIR IDEAL PIETY. 277 

pecuniary condition, in intellect, and culture. They 
will not be found there. Nor could they in our Sav- 
ior's time. Humanity, Jewish and Gentile, in its hours 
of aspiration, naturally enough looked to the mem- 
bers of the Sanhedrim, to the Priesthood, to the High 
Priest himself for the best embodiment of religious 
sanctity, of God-likeness in men. It was not there, 
but among the fallen and the outcast, after Jesus had 
made them whole and clean. Noblest and most rich- 
ly endowed natures are most prone to fall. If God, — 
Jesus had been undiscerning and as incompassionate 
as men, what would have become of David, Mary 
Magdalene, Peter, Paul? The Publican, standing 
afar off, out of the extremity of his soul-agony, smit- 
ing upon his breast, cried: " God be merciful to me a 
sinner." The Pharisee, ^ out of his self-complacency, 
prayed thus serenely by himself: "God! I thank thee, 
I am not as other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, 
or even as this Publican." He was a punctilious ob- 
server of the Law. Went up daily to the Temple to 
pray; a tithe-payer of mint, anise and cummin; a 
representative, enlightened, pious, perhaps priestly 
Hebrew. But the former went down to his house 
justified rather than the latter. Jesus often went to 

I. It was a class, not less influential and important, than might 
be produced in England, by fusing the bar, the clergj, and uni- 
versities, and the literary class into one vast intellectual order. 

"The cities through which Christ walked, the Jerusalem at 
which He kept the annual feasts, were filled with men compared 
with whom the contemporaries of David might be called barbarous, 
men whose characters had been moulded during many centuries 
by law, bj trade and foreign intercourse, by wealth and art, by lit- 
erature and prophecy, — JScce Homo. 



278 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

Bethany as to a home and to loved kindred, but when 
He dined with the Pharisee, He poured forth on the 
class of which his host was the representative, such 
a tide of woe and malediction as was never heard 
from a guest before. 'Tis appalling, indeed, that these 
Hebrew dignitaries, whose minds and hearts had been 
flooded with the accumulated light of forty centuries, 
instead of being from their nationality, profession, 
station, light, finished representatives of God-like- 
ness in men; were, in fact, the chef d'oeuvres of dia- 
bolic sublety and cunning. The Savior pronounced 
them vipers. No other word so glaring in its im- 
agery, so expressive and definitive of characteristic 
could have been coined. The viperous glare of the 
eye, the forked, fiery, protruding tongue, the venom- 
ous fang are seen, the serpent hiss is heard. And 
these were Hebrew sanctities! The culminating 
fruit of enlightened Judaism under the regimen of 
the Law for four thousand years ! Reals of Ideals ! 
Devourers of widows' houses ! Robbers of orphans ! 
Glistering statues of piety! Whited sepulchers! Pil- 
lars of savorless salt monumental for all time! Oh! 
'tis possible, then, for men to live under the prohi- 
bitions of Sinai, — hearing God issue them with voices, 
thunderings and lightnings; be under the ministry of 
Prophets; go up daily to Temples to pray; bide ec- 
clesiastically in His Sanctuary; sacrifice at the Altar; 
enter into the Holy of Holies, — right at the Advent of 
the expected High Priest from Heaven and in His 
presence ; and, from their position, privilege and light 
be the most corrupt of men. Serpents! Brood of 
vipers! 



SELF-SEEKING RELIGIONISTS OF MODERN TIMES. 279 

Such startling revelation did He, who "knew what 
was in man," give of the hearts and characters of the 
professed Sanctities of His time. Should He come 
in like manner to this generation, with "Fan in His 
hand," what multitudes, indeed, how many church 
dignitaries might find themselves as spiritually desti- 
tute, if not as positively corrupt, considering their 
light, as were these Scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees. 
Dost thou, church member! deem this an uncharitable 
saying? Test thyself. If the Master should come 
to thee this night, would' st thou be delighted to see 
Him, and to open thy heart to Him? or would' st 
thou not beg Him to defer His visit to thee individ- 
ually, till thou wast better prepared to meet and to 
receive Him ? Indeed, is there not reason to believe 
thou would' st shrink in terror from the encounter, 
and flee to escape the. scrutiny? 

Can condition be more appalling, than that of a 
supremely selfish one, hopelessly on the down grade, 
conscious all the while, it may be, of the descent? — a 
soul chanting the dirge of its own obsequies to the 
muffled drum-stroke and the despairful wail! — a soul 
already progressed so far to the nethermost, that re- 
covery from the fearfully increased and ever increas- 
ing momentum of avaricious habit, save through 
Divine interposition, is impossible ! In first increment, 
decline, like that of glaciers, may be noiseless, and 
without landmarks for observation, imperceptible, — 
extending, perhaps, through stretches of time. But 
at the last comes the sudden descent with terrible 
velocity. The feet slide in due time. The destruc- 
tion is "without remedy." 



280 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

In that dread moment, how the frantic soul 
Raves round her clay tenement and shrieks for help! 
But shrieks in vain! 

Morbid and distorted representation, it is said, this 
is. Can it be possible of such dread reality? Is 
there a soul that sometimes has not had forebodings? 
What must that foreboded be? There have been 
many such death-bed scenes, from which witnesses 
have recoiled with terror. Even Tom Paine, — the idol 
or the fetish of his distinguished successor in the Uni- 
ted States, — with all his assumed bravado and indif- 
ference with regard to his future destiny, was forced 
in his last hours to confess his mistake, and to bitterly 
lament it.^ 

Let a self-seeking, intriguing one enter the min- 
istry and seek there to thrive. He will fail. The 
vocatioD, in fact, being one of service, will bring no 
nutriment to himself or the flock he ostensibly serves. 
The career in that relation must inevitably be brief. 
Driven, as must be, from the sacred vocation by want 
of results deemed adequate and properly remunera- 
tive, by the weariness of hearers, or, perhaps, by their 
disgust, he will resort to the nearest shift, — perhaps 

1= Once when his young Quaker nurse was in his room, some 
of his infidel associates came to him, and in a loud, heartless man- 
ner said: "Tom Paine! it is said you are turning Christian, but 
we hope you will die as you have lived," and then went away. 
Turning to that nurse, Paine said; "You see what miserable 
comforters they are." Once he asked her if she had read any of 
his writings. " She had begun the 'Age of Reason,' " she said, 
"but it made her so miserable that she flung it into the fire." " I 
wish all had done as you did," he said, "for if the Devil ever had 
any agency in any work, he had it in my writing that book. — 
Memoirs of Stephen Grellet (^tcaker). 



ANTI-CHRIST IN SELF. 281 

an agency or a secretaryship if it can be secured. — The 
reference is, of course, to individuals sometimes seen, 
by no means to the noble, good, self-denying class, 
who occupy such needed and essential positions. — 
Gravitating to office seeking, to land, stock or grain 
gambling, for gravitate he will still downward — easy 
is the descent; for cold-blooded. Atheistic disregard 
of the interests of others, he will surpass the profes- 
sional politician, as a Pharisee could be sharper in 
his bargains, keener in his robbery than a Publican 
in his extortion. The names of such will be seen 
sometimes in the denominational periodicals, in con- 
nection with a notice of some ordination, or services 
of dedication; or, in times of special religious inter- 
est, it will be announced from some pulpit, that such 
an one will preach to sinners ! 

Thus one gravitated from the ministry, and came 
to disastrous bankruptcy in one of our large cities. 
Bitter ejaculations of " swindler " and "swindling" 
were heard from the mouths of suffering creditors 
whose confidence had been abused. 

One morning subsequent, there appeared in the 
daily journals of that city a minute of a judgment as 
follows: "Judgment vs. for $^,000.00." 

One seemed to be among the meekest and the 
humblest of men, but, when crossed in his purposes, 
selfishness, subtlety and cunning would uncoil them- 
selves. He did not love money, but power, — the sway 
of his imperious will. He had poetic sensibility, but 
no heart; intellectual acumen, but no breadth or mag- 
nanimity; was vociferous for freedom, but tyrannical 
in official intercourse; became the self-elected ex- 



282 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

poser of official intrigue, mismanagement and wrong, 
and well did lie do it, though, as was evident, under 
the sway o£ personal animosities; — finally, when 
power came to his grasp, fell with facility into the 
practice of the same oppression he had anathematized 
in others. He had espoused the cause of the wronged, 
but soon demonstrated that his little finger would be 
thicker than the loins of official fathers, were he in- 
stalled in their place. " The Devil's darling sin is 
pride that apes humility." 

These were the manufactures under the formalism 
of a third of a century, Such results are not only 
possible, but real in modern times, notwithstanding 
the restraining influences of Christianity, as they 
were glaring and conspicuous under the constant tui- 
tion of the Master Himself. 

If self-expatriation; if deliberate crucifixion of the 
flesh, and of motives of living that ordinarily impel 
men; if hardships and privations; if malarial climes; 
if uncongenial society; if sickness and constant ex- 
posedness to violent death; if a sanctified vocation 
merely could transform self-willed, selfish, self-seek- 
ing, cold and unsympathetic natures into those like 
Christ's; — Pharisees, who "compassed sea and land 
to make one proselyte," or Jesuits, who circumnavi- 
gated the earth and penetrated every clime for that 
same purpose, ought to have furnished the finest 
illustrations of the Christian spirit. No. "Their 
skies, not their souls are changed who cross the seas," 
and a superior one hath said, "though I give my body 
to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me 
nothing." 



MODERN PETERS AND SONS OF ZEBEDEE. 283 

Natural infirmities, intensified by the unrestrained 
indulgence and riot of many years, are often plead in 
extenuation of despicable conduct. They are the 
Devil's fui'nace, into which he bides his time to shovel 
the fuel of Gehenna. As if believers were not bound 
to keep their "natural infirmities" under proper con- 
trol, if grace has not been able to get the mastery ! 
As if they will not be responsible for their indul- 
gence ! As if a modicum, at least, of the tincture of 
Divine love men profess to have received of the Lord 
Jesus, could not be infused into their natural "gall of 
bitterness!" As if a Satanic will, which never cedes, 
yields and relaxes, is not to be subordinate to the will 
of God, and not to be somewhat restrained by due re- 
gard to the wills of others ! 

Back through Peter, believer as he was, and who, 
after the crucifixion, proved so constant and true ; and 
whom He had, not long before and so emphatically 
pronounced blessed, the Savior discerned the Evil 
One subtle and foul, and exclaimed: "Get thee be- 
hind Me, Satan ! thou art a skandalon to Me ; for 
thou mindest not the things of God, but of men." If 
he succeeded in entering and possessing for the time 
an ancient apostle under the eye of his Master, it is not 
improbable, that he would be successful sometimes in 
entering and possessing modern apostles. Thus, also, 
did He rebuke others — the sons of Zebedee, who 
would call down fire from heaven to consume the in- 
hospitable and unreceptive Samaritans: "Ye know 
not what manner of spirit ye are of." ^ 

It is not surprising, that the doctrine of a Purga- 
tory, and of an Intermediate State, finds credence 



284 •* THE CHRIST IN LIFE. * 

with SO many, and that it is one of the fixed beliefs 
and cardinal teachings of a large and very powerful 
sect, when the state of many regenerate and unregen- 
erate hearts is considered. How it is possible, that 
such, who profess to be Christians, should they be 
suddenly summoned to their account, in the height of 
their intrigues, over-reaching, disregard of the rights 
and interests of others; lioiv U is possible^ that such, 
before they have reviewed their conduct and repented 
of it, and have become somewhat purified through 
the process, can pass directly into the Heavenly 
world — the eternal abode of the pure, the un-self- 
seeking, without being compelled, necessarily, to 
tarry for a season in an intermediate, purgatorial 
quarantine, cannot be comprehended. True: those 
saved are saved forever, but, it is not believed, against 
their will, or without faith coadjunct and coadjutant. 
" Faith without works is dead." It is said of some 
that they will be saved, "yet so as by fire." Prob- 
ably the class referred to, if they have been born 
again, and have not rested their hopes of ultimate 
salvation on "commandment keeping," will be com- 
prised in that class of salvables. It is quite certain, 
however, that iheir works will he, somenjhere, first 
burned up. If not, the implication is fearful, that 
both they and their works will be reserved conjointly 
for another kind of, and an eternal burning! 

The existence and manifestation of depravity, — 
selfishness condensed and compacted, is possible, 
then, with enjoyment of the best light and possession 
of the best means of grace. May it not be possible, 
then, for men to live under the Gospel dispensation; 



MAMMON WORSHIP. 285 

In the full blaze of revealed Christianity, and of nine- 
teen centuries of its light; to be pillars in the church 
of God, indeed, to minister at the very altar, to be 
days-men between sinners and God, — presentments 
of seraphs — counterfeit ones though they be, in speech 
and prayer, gifts and graces, pulpit tones, utterances 
and attitudes; yet not only be miserable, unregener- 
ate sinners themselves, but so corrupt in heart, as to 
receive justly, fittingly from Jesus the malediction: 
"Serpents! Brood of vipers! How can ye escape the 
damnation of Gehenna?" O 'tis possible! " He that 
hath ears to hear, let him hear." 

Besides these and other serious deflections from 
right, it may be said generally, that intense worldli- 
ness, love of money, and of the power that money se- 
cures, — Mammon apotheosized, are glaring character- 
istics of English speaking society, of many that bear 
the Christian name ; pervading even very many 
churches, so that there is, seemingly at least, more 
formalism and theory in the ecclesiastical life than 
practical holy living; self is primarily enthroned, and 
all activity made to concenter to its exaltation, — God 
and one's neighbor being secondarily regarded. As 
when Jesus was in the flesh, God-likeness, Christ- 
likeness is not found so purely in the loftiest eccle- 
siastical places; in the Papal See; the metropolitan 
bishopric; sometimes, it is feared, not even in the 
theological professorship, the editorial chair, the 
missionary secretaryship or the pulpifc; as in the cot 
of some poverty-stricken widow, or of some child of 
privation and suffering. 

Now : it is not intended to intimate, that the clergy 



286 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

of the day, as a class, are at all as degenerate as many 
of the corrupt priests who ministered at the altar in 
our Savior's time; — most of them, it is hoped, are 
Godly men, incorrupt in faith and life, — earnestly 
and sincerely seeking the temporal and eternal weal 
of others; some, however, demonstrate that they are 
possessed by a self-seeking spirit, and by unsanctified 
ambition; are too haughty, and have too little of the 
meekness and gentleness of their Master. Nor is it 
intimated, that the deacons, elders, and chief men in 
churches are like those Pharisaic worshipers, who de- 
voured widows' houses in their business, and for pre- 
tence made long prayers. Many of them are among 
the salt of the earth. But fidelity requires the dec- 
laration, that the mass of church-members seem to be 
so deeply absorbed in the pursuits of this life, with- 
out proper regard for the next, that it is difficult, six 
days out of seven, to distinguish them from world- 
lings, who make no pretensions to Christianity, — to 
care or thought for the future. Jesus speaks to such 
by His unselfish life, and all potencies from the un- 
seen world cry : Awake thou sleeper on the banks of 
eternal perdition! awake or be lost! Thou canst not 
prevail with God a self-seeker. Thou canst not ac- 
quire any transient or permanent influence with thy 
fellows — until thou dost live for God's glory, and the 
weal of men. Once more, as with the blare of a trum- 
pet, in the name of the Crucified One, this theme pro- 
claims to thee ; this writer dares to take courage to 
say to thee: Thou must he horn again. Awake! Flee 
for refuge to the Saving One or thou art lost! 

Between Hebrew society in the time of Jesus, and 



KEFINED SELFISHNESS. 287 

that of Christendom at the present time, there is 
some analogy. There were gorgeous synagogues in 
every portion of the Sacred Land; many hundreds in 
the great city; and there was the Temple itself, to 
which the Tribes went up from all sections thrice a 
year, and in which there was a daily prayer meeting, 
xlrt, science, wealth were not spared to make them 
imposing to the outward eye and attractive to the 
self-complacent, courtly worshipers within. There 
was painting and statuary, the air was redolent with in- 
cense, and music swelled forth its inspiring strains. 
They were thronged with the high dignitaries, the 
wealth, fashion and beauty of the metropolitan city; 
but Jesus was not ordinarily there. He was on the 
street, in by-ways, in a valley, or on a hill-top, at 
the gate-way, by the side of the diseased and suffer- 
ing, teaching the mysteries of His kingdom and min- 
istering personally to the necessities of the needy. 

Go into a congregation of New Englanders in any 
of our cities. They are refined in their manners, 
symmetrical in their piety, earnest in whatever they 
undertake. It is a pleasant sight, — a sermon in itself, 
this orderly grouping of them by families in their re- 
spective pews. The services of the pulpit, the music 
of the choir, the air of the worshipers are in accord. 
Well-to-do, and with the super-touch of grace on 
their culture, they are of course genial. They in- 
voke blessings on all and look benignantly, sympa- 
thetically upon those socially beneath them, — the 
poor, the needy. "Lord! let Thy kingdom speedily 
come, and Thy holy will be done Here as in Heaven," 
seems thair prayer. Their theory of religion em- 



288 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

bodies almost, if not quite completely, the perfection 
of Christ's precepts. If more light breaks forth from 
God's Word, they are ready to receive it into their 
heads and hearts. They take with them into their re- 
ligious movements the same "faculty," — common 
sense, which they employ in their secular affairs, 
sanctifying it for the holy purpose. Yet, mainly, 
their Christian activities are directed to the elevation, 
— the social, literary and Christian culture of them- 
selves and families, through the church, the pulpit, 
the Sunday school and the sociable. This is desirable, 
important, obligatory. But in the origination, di- 
rection, control of all this, may not the selfish pre- 
dominate over the higher motives ? May not love for 
one's family, zeal for the prosperity of one's church 
degenerate into forgetfulness of the claims, the ne- 
cessities and the relations of others? Because the ser- 
vices of God's House are so grateful to the religious 
sensibilities, so exquisitively adapted to meet the 
soul's wants; because the educational influence is so 
potent, refining, stimulative, healthful; and because, 
on the other hand, ministry to others beneath them 
in the social scale and in want is not attractive, if not 
repulsive, — a weariness for the body, a burden for the 
soul, a cross for the spirit; shall it be presumed, that 
occupation with the first to the neglect of the latter 
is acceptable to God? Elevate thyself and thine so-- 
cially, educationally, spiritually, but fail not to ex- 
tend thy hand, while so doing, to lift up others to thy 
level, even if thou hast to descend somewhat to do it. 
Love ever descends. True life ever is in sacrifice — 
service. " It is more blessed to give than to receive." 



SPIKITUAL DESTITUTION IN LARGE CITIES. 289 

" The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, 
but to minister." " If any will come after Me, let 
him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and 
follow Me." The disciple is not above his Master, 
nor the servant above his Lord. " If I, then, your 
Lord and Master have washed your feet, ye also 
ought to wash one another's feet." "For I have given 
you an example, that ye should do as I have done to 
you." " Yerily, verily, I say unto you, the servant is 
not greater than his Lord." " If ye know these things, 
happy are ye if ye do them." 

That Temple, externally, is an architectural thing 
of beauty and of joy, — most amiable of tabernacles to 
worshipers; — with spire shooting heavenward; with 
sumptuously arranged and adorned interior; easeful 
seats; golden fronted organ; groined arches; embel- 
lished ceiling; stained windows; soft, religious light. 

While this highly favored class with their families 
are seated so comfortably, absorbed in the refined 
discourse, pervaded by the unction of the represent- 
ative prayer, lifted heavenward by the songs of praise; 
in unsightly portions of the city are multitudes of 
men, women and children in rags, squalor, vice, want. 
They are diseased in body and mind. The atmos- 
phere, material and spiritual, reeks with putridity. 
There are children without father or mother or friend. 
— No Christ, no Sabbath, no prayer in that neighbor- 
hood. Some, perhaps many, are antagonizing earn- 
estly with all possible might in their weakness, to 
keep themselves from being utterly throttled by the 
evils inseparable from their destitution. No smile 

19 



290 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

from any well-to-do one casually in contact, or pas- 
sing by on the other side, lights on them in their 
stolid, despairful state.^ Benisoned are they by no 
" God bless you;" braced by no helpful word; strength- 
ened by no material aid. Alone they antagonize with 
misfortune, with self-degradation and self-ruin it 
may be. No human sympathy eases the way down. 
He, whose Eye pierces into every covert, as overt 
place, pities, feels. But physically and spiritually" 
blighted, temporally if not eternally lost, they re- 
alize it not. 

Do those well-to-do, those spiritually exalted wor- 
shipers; — do they, in the recipiency of those heav- 
enly blessings descending upon their souls like the 
dew of Hermon; — do they, in the depth of their 
hushed communion with their God; — do ihei/y for a 
moment, think of those hungry, thirsty, naked, de- 
spairful, it may be criminal ones, draining the cup of 
sorrow to its dregs ? Should Jesus descend on one 
of these balmy Sabbaths in June, whither would those 
wounded feet ^7^s/ tend ? To that Temple, — majestic 
apostrophe to His name, illumined by His light, in- 
censed by His love, pervaded by His Spirit? To it, 
doubtless. He would be attracted, and in it, unques- 
tionably. He would be present in some degree by His 

I. There is an extreme degree of suffering, which seems more 
ruinous to the soul than the most enervating prosperity. When 
existence itself cannot be supported without an unceasing and ab- 
sorbing struggle, there is no room in the heart for any desire, but 
the wretched animal instinct of self-preservation, which merges 
in an intense, pitiable, but scarcely blamable selfishness. What 
tenderness, what gratitude, what human virtue can be expected of 
the man who is holding a wolf by the ears.'' — Ecce Homo. 



SKANDALA IN THE WAY. 291 

sympathy through His Spirit and His benediction; — 
for where His disciples are, He ever is, though they 
be imperfect. But would He, bodily, ^rs/ go there? 
Not there, it is thought, but to those scenes of desti- 
tution, those haunts of woe. Would He, wending 
thitherward, pass by any on the other side? Never! 
" For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that 
which was losV 

Because there is not more conformity between pre- 
cept and practice, profession and possession; because 
the fruits of theoretic Christianity are not more pro- 
lific in the lives of its followers ; because it seems to 
fail to have the power that is naturally looked for on 
the hearts of men; there is a prevailing distrust, if 
not disbelief, among many thoughtful and intelligent, 
not so much of the divinity of the Lord Jesus, though 
" some doubt," as they have ever and ever will to 
the end, — not so much of the divine thought in the 
Scriptures or of most of their cardinal teachings as 
of the Christianity of its professors, with perhaps 
few and rare exceptions, — of there being, after all, 
any such soul-change experienced as is denominated 
and understood by the terms, " new creature," " new 
hearts," "regeneration," "new birth," "conversion;" 
that it means nothing more than those revolutions in 
men's tastes and habits which often take place, and in 
that mental and moral improvement, which is the re- 
sult of experience and discipline; that there is no dif- 
ference at all in men, only as it exists in natural con- 
stitution, in civilization, in culture secular and relig- 
ious, in the different circumstances under which they 
come up to maturity; that the manifested zeal for 



292 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

the Lord and the weal of men, in many if not most 
instances, is more the prompting of inherent energy 
and restlessness to achieve something, than of unsel- 
fish love. This distrust and unbelief keep them from 
Christian influence, from the House of God. The de- 
cisive test they remorselessly apply to professedly 
Christian character, and thus determine to their sat- 
isfaction the genuineness or baseness, the value or 
worthlessness of profession, as they are authorized by 
the Christ. They are not to be reprehended for it, 
only they should be discriminate and charitable — 
striving to distinguish between the true and the false, 
the unselfish and the selfish, — which is purely one or 
the other, or intermixture of both. They should con- 
sider, that the professedly regenerate equally with 
the unregenerate are frail, — though they ought to be 
better men — having the promise of " being kept by 
the power of God through faith unto salvation," if 
they will avail themselves of it; that in common with 
all men, they also have animal appetites, passions 
and desires clamorous for gratification; families look- 
ing to them for subsistence in a selfish world; that 
they are exposed to inward and outward corruption, 
— being stimulated, harassed, tried as are all men; 
and oft-times assaulted with temptations that are 
peculiar to their conditions. The world screws them, 
and they screw others for very life. 

This skeptically inclined class is not forward, dem- 
onstrative or communicative of their distrust or dis- 
belief, save to confidential associates. But there is 
a noisy, depraved class, with vicious intent, who are 
ever seeking to make the faults and inconsistencies 



/ 
SELF AND MAMMON DETHRONED, GOD ENTHRONED. 293 

of believers a basis for denunciation of Christianity, 
and of all who profess it, and of all means of grace. 
They eat up the sins of God's people as they eat bread. 
They work mischief among the young and the weak- 
minded, inoculating them with their foul and skepti- 
cal virus, biasing them against all Christian influ- 
ences, causing them to stifle the voice of a reprov- 
ing conscience and to refrain their feet from the 
House of God. The results of this darkness of un- 
belief are disastrous. Multitudes are, in consequence, 
in subjection to the Evil One — trained for spiritual 
havoc Here, and for perdition in the Future. The 
skandala must be taken out of the way. There must 
be radical revolution in popular Christian life; it 
must conform nearer to the Divine precept and the 
sacred profession itself. Self and Mammon must be 
dethroned and God enthroned. Believers must ap- 
proximately, at least, love their neighbors as them- 
selves. Unbelievers and blasphemers must no longer 
have occasion to tauntingly inquire: "What do ye 
more than others?" "Do not heathen and publicans 
the same?" Otherwise, the numbers of intelligent 
and thoughtful skeptics, and of noisy blasphemers 
will continue to increase, the Houses of worship to 
be half-filled, and evangelizing influences cease to 
have their full power on unregenerate men. 

These, doubtless, will be esteemed by some, austere 
sayings. Who can bear them ? But let successful 
business men who profess to be Christians be brought 
in succession to the bar of Christ's precepts, to the 
test of His inquisition, and we shall soon see. By 
what means, sir! hast thou been able to succeed, — to 



294: THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

thus accumulate? Enter into the details. Start from 
the commencement of thy business career, analyze, 
or let the Divine Searcher analyze for thee the suc- 
cessive steps, day by day, by which thou wast enabled 
to get the start of thy neighbor, and to bear him down 
in the race. Be honest, sir! in these revelations. Dost 
thou say, it was by thy superior sagacity and intelli- 
gence? Ah! was it always so? Was there not inter- 
woven sometimes some intrigue? Was there not 
some deception, some misrepresentation practiced? 
Thou speakest of thy superior sagacity and 
intelligence. Who gave them to thee? And 
didst thou have a right, as a professed believer, 
to employ them to the disadvantage of thy neighbor? 
Was it not required of thee, that thou shouldst re- 
gard him as thyself, — to look upon his things as 
upon thine own ? Answer ! as one must answer at the 
bar of the Christ's judgment. Hast thou not on oc- 
casions designedly dropped some word to bias others 
against him or his interest, when thou thoughtest the 
results would inure to thy benefit? Answer! out of 
the secret conclaves of thy heart, lighted up by the 
fire of God's Spirit: Answer! 

Dost thou say, that thy success was chiefly result- 
ant, not of the exertion of thy sagacity and skill, but 
of thy superior money capital? And to whom wast 
thou indebted for this capital ? and did this divinely 
beneficent One authorize thee to employ it to the det- 
riment of thy neighbor? And art thou not, by as 
much as thou dost possess more than thy neighbor, 
to the same extent responsible? particularly that 



ADULTEBATED HEAVENLINGS. 295 

thou dost take care not to make it an instrument of 
injury to him? 

Said a Godless man in public life, when spoken to 
on the necessity of being born again in order to be 
saved: "I know it all, — the power and beauty of 
Christianity in the family, the beneficent influences 
of worship on children, for I had a praying mother." 
He had interesting children, some of whom, though 
young, were fast falling into his demoralizing habits. 
The oldest son went since to a profligate's grave. His 
mother, from a broken heart, succeeded him. Befer- 
ring to a prominent church, with which his family 
worshiped when they attended for such service, he 
said: "Of what avail would it be to such a man as I 
am, and who knows so much about the characters of 
the leading men of that church, to be connected with 
them in church relations, if I were a Christian ? Who 

are they? There's ; he acquired the bulk of his 

property in whisky and other speculations. There's 

; when in the Legislature, away from home 

and concealed, as he supposed, from observation, I 
knew him to frequently repair on legislative recesses 
to the saloon, — to play cards, to succeed with that 
which shall not be named by this writer. There's 

; he built his fine mansion out of gains wrung 

from one who lost his farm in consequence. There's 

; you know who he is." Thus he went through 

the list of prominent members. Coming to the min- 
ister, he said: "He is oily and plausible. He has 
been cognizant of all these scandalous actions of 
these his church members, but never once raised his 
voice in open or private rebuke of them." Such close 



296 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

and critical observers, sucli merciless dissectors of 
conduct, — ever setting life over against profession, 
are frequently met in society, many of them having 
come oat of Christian families. Allude to the neces- 
sity that they must be born again, and they will 
break out into passionate and violent denunciation of 
the abominable conduct of this or that church mem- 
ber, by whom they and others have been wronged. 
They will end by declaring, that they have been in- 
jured more by some inside of the churches than by 
others outside of them ; that a certificate of member- 
ship in a Christian church is no certification of integ- 
rity to them; that they would sooner trust a pure 
worldling than an adulterated heavenling. Now: all 
this may be impulsively or deliberately, candidly or 
sinisterly said by them. It is a fact, however, that 
such declarations come from some who are very hon- 
orable men; upright in their transactions, generous 
and genial in their intercourse, patterns in external 
conduct to many who make higher professions. 

This class, indeed, have not the slightest excuse for 
rejecting the Gospel of the Christ, though all church 
members were hypocrites ; nor will professors of re- 
ligion be excused for placing skandala in their way. 
It were better for such, exclaimed Jesus, that a mill- 
stone were hung about their necks and they cast 
into the sea. No light thing it is to be a skandalon 
in the way of a soul to Heaven, over which it may 
tumble into Gehenna. Turn thou. Christian professor! 
to Ezekiel iii:20, or to the 17th of Luke, for a premo- 
nition of the woe that will fall upon thee in the next 
world, if thou continuest a skandalon in this. 



THEKE MUST BE CHARITY. 297 

It cannot be denied, that the mass of professing 
Christians in all churches are infirm. They have 
ever been so. The Apostles were. They confessed 
it. So were all primitive believers. The Apostolic 
epistles to them, especially to the Corinthians, reveal 
great frailty, scandalous practices. God in the Christ 
came to call sinners, not the righteous into His spir- 
itual kingdom. Sinners are not transformed at once 
into saints. This is the result of a life. Thou hast a 
right, brother man! to expect progress, — daily con- 
conquest over constitutional infirmity, bad habits, 
vicious tendency, outward temptation, — not perfec- 
tion. Thou knowest not what war may be in those 
souls against sin. Frailty is ever more conspicuous 
than grace. Eyes are sharper for the detection of 
the one, than for the recognition of the other. De- 
plorable is it, that the light is not often superior to 
the darkness. Pity them, brother sinner! Thou 
needest pity for thyself. Pray for them. Pray for 
thyself, that thou mayest be a superior, a riper and a 
more symmetrical Christian than they. 

Outward manifestation does not always indicate 
correctly inward state. The face may be placid, — ^joy 
frequently may play upon it, while there is storm and 
distress within. The countenances of others may in- 
dicate abandon to sin, recklessness, seeming insen- 
sibility to goodness, indifference to the right, pure 
and true, obliteration of moral distinctions, defiance 
of God as well as of men, — madness may be in their 
hearts (Ecc. ix:3); yet the poor souls may not be 
utterly abandoned, may be much nearer to the gates 
of Heaven than is supposed, — than when sunk in 



298 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

apathy; yet it must be added, they may be near as 
possible to Gehenna. The soul, wreck though it be of 
former vigor, roused and stimulated by the grace of 
God, may be striving to take upon itself the complete 
panoply, in order to effectually resist. This gust of 
passion, this bluster and bravado, this hurly-burly of 
depravity may be the effort to cover up from observa- 
tion the inward storm. Thus are souls masked in the 
tragedy of life. Pity them, brother! They need thy 
sympathy. Heaven weeps and watches. 

Judge not; the Avorkings of his brain 

And of his heart thou canst not see; 
What looks to thy dim eves a stain, 

In God's pure light may only be 
A scar brought from some av ell- won field, 
Where thou would'st only faint and yield. 

And judge none lost, but wait and see 

With hopeful pity, not disdain; 
The depth of the abyss may be 

The measure of the height of pain 
And love and glory that may raise 
This soul to God in after days. 

O soul! tried with these base counterfeits, with 
hypocrites in profession and practice, perhaps thou 
mayest be conscious thyself of the frailty of thy heart. 
Suffer plain dealing with thee. If thou art honest 
thyself, endeavoring to "keep the commandments" 
unaided, look to the Spotless One, — turn away from 
the contemplation of these miserable, unsightly abor- 
tions of the " new birth," these moral putrescences, 
these offenses that smell rank to Heaven, to feast 
thine eyes on Him. He is true, though all men are 
liars. And many of His disciples, though some of 
them follow Him afar off, endeavor to keep near Him. 
True: some of them halt and stumble sometimes. 



LOOK TO THE SPOTLESS ONE. 299 

But up tliey are hobbling again. Pity tliem in tlieir 
weakness and infirmity. Perhaps thou art stronger 
constitutionally than they; less beset by the machin- 
ations of the Enemy; hast a sounder body, less viti- 
ated by ancestral or self-corruption; hast a brain bet- 
ter poised — unmaddened by appetite or passion. Thou 
hast, perhaps, an intellect superior, perception keener, 
— able to discriminate more correctly, more refinedly 
between right and wrong; hast enjoyed more light, 
been placed in circumstances less conducive to temp- 
tation. If so, thank God for His providence and 
grace which have made thee to differ, and remember, 
— fail not to remember, to whom much is given, of 
them much will be required. Lend thy weaker broth- 
er of the human family a helping hand; speak to him 
a cheering word if he is a professed believer and thou 
art not; if he evince by the revelation of act and mo- 
tive, that he is doubtless a wolf in sheep's clothing, — 
an angel of evil clad in garments of light; unfrock 
him of his disguise, exposing him in his true likeness, 
hideous and foul. If thou art thyself a defier of the 
prohibitions of the Decalogue, Godless and God- 
defiant, how canst thou raise thy voice against their 
abominations, until thou first dost repent of and re- 
form from thine own? First let thyself be healed, 
and then canst thou come with propriety to clamor 
for the purification of others and to wail over their 
short comings, — their sins of commission and omis- 
sion, their positive iniquities. One-twelfth of the 
original band was a traitor, and one of the remaining 
eleven went close to the verge of perdition. He had 
been a poor fisherman of Galilee, — impetuous, im- 



300 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

pulsive, self-willed. Many a time, doubtless, before 
his call, lie had sworn terribly in his vocation when 
he had toiled all night and " caught nothing " — did 
not "succeed" in business; in an evil hour, under 
the stimulation of the Adversary who desired to sift 
him as wheat, the bad habit returned and o'er- 
mastered him. There be some traitors in these 'days, 
— perhaps one-twelfth of the number of disciples, 
perhaps more. There be many Peters who have de- 
nied Christ on many occasions, and ratified their 
perjury by oaths when left to themselves, and the 
Devil entered in and took possession. Yet they may 
be Christians, and after their denial and perjury, 
perhaps may have gone out and " wept bitterly," — 
then returned contrite to the feet of the Saving One, 
out of trial having become strong and sturdy — the 
most efficient of disciples. " This unworthy hand," 
"this unworthy hand," cried Cranmer, as he held it 
out to be consumed in the flames, — that hand which 
had once signed the recantation of the faith he had 
professed. Though it is possible, that one may 
"give his body to be burned" and yet not be saved; 
yet it is likewise possible, "they may sit in the orches- 
tra and noblest seats of Heaven, who have held up 
shaking hands in the fire." ^ 

How much, preventing God, — how much I owe 

To the defences Thou hast round me set! 
Example, Custom, Fear, Occasion slow, — 

These scorned bondsmen were my parapet; 
I dare not peep over the parapet, 

To guage with glance the roaring gulf below, — 
The depths of sin to which I had descended. 

Had not these me against myself defended, a 

I. Sir Thomas Browne. 2. Herbert. 



INCONSISTENT AND COEBUPT RELIGION. 301 

Now: though there may not be absolutely so much 
corruption among modern religionists under the Gos- 
pel, as there was among the ancient under the Law; 
still, relatively, with respect to the vivid and accumu- 
lated light of the Christian era, is there not reason to 
fear, there is as much ? ^ 

The stirring zeal of missionary portions of American 
churches for the evangelization of the heathen abroad, 
and the spiritually destitute at home, — becoming more 
and more intense for the last half century; the es- 
tablishment and munificent sustentation of eleemosy- 
nary institutions all over the land for the relief of 
the needy and the outcast; the organization since 
1884 of more than a thousand Young Men's Christian 
Associations, — one-third being in the United States, 
which have taken up as a specialty the work of prac- 
tical Christianity, — the erection of so many commo- 
dious edifices for their homes, and as grand centres, 
like Earwell Hall in Chicago, from which issue, day 
and night, myriads of influences for the Christiani- 
zation of communities near and far, are significant in- 
dications, — like the succulent branch and tender leaf 
of the Fig Tree, that summer is near. 

But other facts cannot be forgotten. ^ Twenty-five 

1 . The practice of the church of Christ on earth for a thousand 
years has been simply infernal. I know what I say, I speak no 
hasty words. I declare that through long periods, the character- 
istic actions of the organized external churches of the Lord Jesus 
Christ have better befitted the administrations of devils, than of 
men. — H. TV. Beeclier. 

2. Sir John Hawkins— the man-stealer, brought a cargo of human 
flesh to the West Indies in 1564, in a ship named Jesus^ and at- 



302 THE CHKIST IN LIFE. 

years only have passed since several millions of men, 
women and children, by Presidential proclamation, 
emerged theoretically from the foulest oppression 
known in history. Church members were, propor- 
tionably to their numbers, as large participants in it 
as those who make no profession of Christianity. For 
many years the churches North either sanctioned, 
connived at or neglected to rebuke it, — to cry aloud, 
as it ought and was bound, against it. The con- 
sciences of large portions of the people were roused 
through the fidelity of a few; yet there was not power 
nor numbers sufficient to induce the churches or the 
nation to repent of, and to abandon it voluntarily. 
God in His providence would endure it no longer. 
He forced into conflict issues and interests, in the 
midst whereof it was suddenly destroyed. This is 
rapid, revolutionary progress in the right direction. 
Yet it cannot be forgotten, that up to 1862, merchan- 
dise of men, women and children, with its sequent 
inherent cruelty, was legalized, was practiced, sanc- 
tioned, tolerated, connived at or unreproved by a ma- 
jority of the churches in the Great Eepublic of the 
world, from its foundation, — even Northern ones, 
with comparatively few exceptions, having failed to 
bear their testimony against it; — that nation which 
professedly became a refuge for the oppressed and 
outcast of all other nationalities, — the missionary base 

tributed his success to " Almighty God," " who never suffers His 
elect to perish." 

" 'John the Bapttsf^ was the name of a vessel in the same ex- 
pedition under the command of David Carlet. — Froude^s History 
of England. 



MANIFESTO OF DOCTOrvS OF DIVINITY ! 303 

for the evangelization of the heathen; and finally, 
that it was not brought to an end through voluntary- 
abandonment by the guilty participants, nor by the 
people of the North, even if it was generally desired, 
but by the abrupt providence of God. All this while, 
these bodies of professed Christian believers were 
fervent in missionary zeal for the salvation of sinners 
at home and abroad. Eotten as was Hebrew society, 
it tolerated no such system as this. The diabolic 
spirit has not been entirely exorcised. The infernal 
snake of oppression and rebellion has been scotched, 
not killed. It ever and anon thrusts up its hateful 
head. 

In 1862-3 the Clergy of all denominations in the 
Confederate States of the South, through their repre- 
sentatives called together in Eichmond for that pur- 
pose, issued an "Address to Christians through- 
out THE World," ^ sending it out from London. In 
it they "testify in the sight of God, that the relation 
of master and slave among us'' "is not incompatible 
with our holy Christianity. '' They enter "solemn 
protest on the part of the people of God throughout 
the world, against the Proclamation of the President 
of the United States seeking the emancipation of the 
slaves of the South.'" They declare: "Let it go forth 
from our lips while we live; let it he recorded of us 
when we are dead; that we, — ministers of our Lord 
Jesus Christ and members of His holy Church, ivith 
our hands upon the Bible,'' "call Heaven and earth 
to record, that in the name of Him ivhose we are and 

I. A copy of this astonishing circular is in the possession of 
the author of this volume. 



301 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

whom we serve, we protest!" "For all thai we say, 
we are willing to he judged by succeeding generations 
and to ansicer in that day ivhen the secrets of all 
hearts shall he made known."" They add: "Our 
President {Jefferson Davis), some of our most influ- 
ential statesmen, our commanding General (Lee) and 
an unusual proposition of the principal Generals, as 
well as scores of others, are prominent and, we be- 
lieve, consistent members of the church.'' " Thous- 
ands of our soldiei's are men of prayer.'' They com- 
pute the number of their church communicants to be 
2,050,000 — "little more than one-third of the adult 
population," 1,550,000 of them being white, colored 
about 500,000. This address is signed by some iwen- 
ty-flve of the leading D. D.s, College Presidents, The- 
ological Professors and Editors of the Baptist 
Church; iicenty-five of the Bishops and D. D.s, Pro- 
fessors, Presidents, Editors of different branches of 
the Methodist Church; nearly fifty of like dignitaries 
in the Presbyterian, United Synod, Associate Re- 
formed, Cumberland Presbyterian, Lutheran, Dis- 
ciples and German Reformed; representing, they say, 
"every accessible section of the Confederacy, and 
nearly every denomination of Christians." ^ 

If it was possible for the large majority of churches 
in these United States, from the foundation of the 

I. The names of the signers individually, and their ecclesias- 
tical positions, all appear in this printed circular. Many of them, 
^perhaps the largest portion of them are now living, and doubtless 
are in the same ecclesiastical vocations. Who would care to be 
ministered to spiritually by them, unless they had recanted the 
above " deliverance ? " 



WRONG TO THE INDIANS. 305 

Government to the decree of emancipation in 1862-3 
forced in order to save the life of the nation, — if it 
was possible for them to be guilty in legal or social 
participation of such oppression, — to live ecclesias- 
tically or individually without solemn and constant 
protest against it; may it not be possible, that there 
yet remain public and private wrongs — not yet fully 
realized, — to be repented of, faithfully testified 
against, and to be redressed? 

The roving aborigines of North America could not 
justly claim to be owners in fact, or lessees from God 
of more land of that continent than was necessary 
for their subsistence. Yet English colonists at the 
first recognized their claims, or deemed it politic to 
do so. The United States have been guilty of bad 
faith to them. Administrations made treaties, in 
which they pledged the nation to pay annuities, to 
support schools, to furnish mechanical and agricultu- 
ral implements, and the necessities of life for the 
surrender of their claims. But little of these appro- 
priations, deemed equivalent for what was obtained, 
reached these trustful in a nation's honor. Said Gen- 
eral Garfield: "I speak what I know, when I say 
that of every dollar appropriated by Congress for the 
Sioux during the last ten years, eighty cents have 
been stolen — only twenty cents reaching the Indians." 
That was not the worst feature in their treatment. 
They were plied with whiskey; their wives and daugh- 
ters were debauched; they were bullied and plundered 
and slain on the sliglitest provocation; the legitimate 
fruits ensued, — horrible massacres, with constant ap- 
prehension of protracted harassing war. 

20 



306 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

True: the Government at a late hour has nobly 
been endeavoring to make amends for duties neglect- 
ed, and for wrongs inflicted, by the institution of 
Peace Commissions. The effort, as always is right- 
ing of wrong-doing, is successful. 

Notwithstanding these facts, many, some professed- 
ly Christian people clamor for their indiscriminate 
extermination as the only possible solution of the 
problem: What shall he done with the Indians f 
That the lawless and the atrocious should be ad- 
equately punished, there can be no question. But 
there should have been discrimination between the 
innocent and the guilty. The Col. Chivington who 
treacherously massacred four hundred defenseless 
women and children, after having pledged their pro- 
tection, was a Methodist preacher. Indian haters 
shut their eyes to the fact, that God made of one 
blood all nations of the earth, — of which great family 
the Indian is one; — that they are men with the nat- 
ural appetites, passions and vices of white men, — 
neither better nor worse by nature, to be commended 
and rewarded for just deeds, and to be adequately 
punished for crimes, but never the innocent for the 
guilty, and only after a legal trial; that God Manifest 
came to save them as all other praved men ; that they 
are as susceptible to righteous treatment, to the in- 
fluences of the Spirit of God, as are Chinese, Japan- 
ese, Hottentots, or South-Sea Islanders; that the ex- 
periment long since was tried, proving an eminent 
success; that at the close of the seventeenth century, 
in New England, thousands of them were converted; 
that there were churches, schools composed entirely 



IMPOVERISHMENT OF THE ENGLISH MASSES. 307 

of tliem, into whose dialect through the indefatigable 
toil of devoted missionaries, the Bible and Hymn 
Books had been translated. What the Spirit of God 
then achieved, in answer to prayer and in conjunction 
with unremitted effort, is possible even now as then. 
The same Gospel which has tamed, revolutionized, 
disenthralled, reconstructed, regenerated and sancti- 
fied barbarians the most savage, the cruel and blood- 
thirsty in all ages, such as Karen Ko Thah Byu, or 
the African Africaner, confessed murderers of scores, 
is potent still to seize hold of and to reconstruct these 
"red devils," to transform them into humble, peace- 
able, even lovely disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
Dost thou doubt it? Then thou distrustest the broth- 
erhood of men, and the omnipotence of Grace. ^ 

Christianity was introduced into England as early as 
the second century, and her people have been pro- 
fessedly, ever since, more or less under the regimen 
of its precepts. For three centuries the Protestant 
form of it has been dominant in her State and Church, 
and accepted by the people generally as the rule of 
life. What is the condition of her masses ? 

Said the London Quarterly Review: "In the sense 
Adam Smith uses the word poor, * living from hand 
to mouth,* nine-tenths of the English people are poor. 

I. Folks has said that there couldn't nothin' be made o' In- 
dians, . . . but Parson Eliot he didn't think so. 'Christ died 
for them as well as for me,' says he; and "jist give 'em the 
Gospel, says he, and the rest'U come along of itself." . . " All 
them Martha Vineyard islands turned Christians, and there was 
Indian preachers and Indian teachers. . . > But I tell you, 
boys, it took faith to start with. — Oldtoivn Stories. 



808 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

, . . In the road which the English laborer must 
travel, the Poorhouse is the last stage on the way to 
the grave.'" 

Said Sydney Smith: "There is, no doubt, more 
misery and acute suffering among the mass of the 
people of England than there is in any kingdom of 
the world." 

Mr. Kay, who was commissioned by the Senate of 
Cambridge University to systematically and thor- 
oughly investigate the social condition of the people 
of England, reported, that, " The poor of England are 
more depressed, more pauperized, more numerous in 
comparison with the other classes, more irreligious, and 
very much worse educated than the poor of any other 
European nation, solely excepting Russia, Turkey, 
South Italy, Portugal and Spain." ' 

It has been stated, that the Government, dur- 
ing seventeen years ending in 1848, had expended for 
the relief of pauperism in England and Wales alone, 
$440,000,000, exclusive of amounts expended in the 
administration of the Poor Laws by the different 
Unions, and those contributed by societies and indi- 
viduals,^ yet the plague is not stayed, but continues to 
spread with virulence. 

As a wealthy manufacturer in Birmingham re- 
marked: — " the whole tendency of British legislation 
is to make the rich richer, and the poor poorer." ^ 

In 1688, of a population of 5,500,000, 170,000 were 
land owners. In 1861, of 20,000.000 only 30,766 were 
such. Nine-tenths of Scot land is claimed by 1700 

I. Quoted bj Lester in "The Glory and the Sharne of En 
gland," 



SAD CONDITION OF ENGLAND'S POOB. 309 

persons. Lester, after twenty-five years of investi- 
gation and thought, reiterates a remark he made at 
its commencement: " I would rather see the children 
of my love born to the heritage of Southern Slavery, 
than to the doom of the operative's life in England." 

The appalling condition of England's poor is as 
concealed from the ordinary observation of travelers, 
as were the atrocities of American slavery in its time. 

What must become of such a Government, of such 
political and ecclesiastical institutions, — State and 
Church interwoven? of such nobility — so named, of 
such privileged classes who claim to own by inherit- 
ance the great bulk of the land itself, — who hold, by 
virtue thereof, most of the places of power and trust? 
— of ecclesiastical dignitaries of the Established 
Church, the support of which, it is stated, costs the 
Government $50,000,000 per annum? 

Even the Empress herself, though exemplary in 
domestic relations, is ever gathering, — accumulating 
treasures, — heaping up, ever heaping up upon the 
massive pile, — hoarding in her avarice, instead of 
distributing to the crying necessities of millions of 
her subjects, — intending, doubtless, to leave her ma- 
terial accumulations, landed estates as well as money, 
to her children, the sons being profligates. What a 
spectacle is this ! Who will not tremble, when he 
considers that God is just, and that He is espouser 
of the worthy poor? Jer. v: 9, I Thess. iv:6. 

If Christianity has not been able for so many cen- 
turies, especially the last three, to purify the Church 
as well as the State; if the upper classes, under the 
professed recognition of Christianity as the rule of 



310 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

their lives, are richer and more powerful, while the 
lower have become poorer, more depressed and ab- 
ject; can there be surprise, that the confidence of 
very many thoughtful ones, — having hitherto re- 
garded Christianity as the forlorn hope of rescuing 
humanity from its natural gravitation downward, — 
all other previous and present religious systems hav- 
ing failed to stay it, — wavers whether it is adequate 
for the supreme task, and awaits some new dispensa- 
tion from the Almighty for the rescue, or the alterna- 
tive violence and anarchy that must, sooner or later, 
ensue? 

"How long, O Lord!" Thou alone canst transform, 
reconstruct and save ! Thou canst do it in a day or 
an hour! The question is, whether Thou wilt con- 
summate it through the tardy process of gradual 
reform, or by the sudden quake of revolution, — the 
upheaval of society, the disintegration of all govern- 
ments and political institutions that disregard the 
cries of the poor and the oppressed. 

Do the shadows of political or social avengers stalk 
before? Of what — premonitory, is this rumbling? 

What is this, the sound and rumor? What is this that all men 

hear, 
Like the wind in hollow valleys when the storm is drawing near, 
Like the rolling on of ocean in the eventide of fear? 
'Tis the people marching on. 

Many hundred years passed over, have they labored deaf and 

blind ; 
Never tidings reached their sorrow, never hope their toil might 

find; 
Now, at last, they've heard and hear it, and their cry comes down 

the wind ; 

And their feet are marching on ! i 

I. William Morris. 



ILLUSTKATIYE AND SUGGESTrV^. 



Next to the originator of a good sentence is the first quoter of it. — Emerson. 



On those roads whose capital stock has been watered by the is- 
sue of additional stock and scrip dividends, everything is made 
subservient to the one necessity of securing sufficient net earnings 
to pay the promised per cent, on these illegal issues. Not only 
are the charges of transportation advanced ; but the expenses of 
the road are curtailed. First class men, unwilling to give their 
service at less than their fair market value, are replaced by ignor- 
ant and inferior who contract to do double duty for half wages. 
A brakeman is discharged here, and a flagman there ; passenger- 
trains are permitted to make up lost time by running at full speed 
over drawbridges. — Rufus Hatch. 

How the Moth-kings lay up treasures for the moth, and the 
Rust-kings, who are to their peoples' strength as rust to armor, 
lay up treasures for the rust ; and the Robber-kings, — treasures for 
the robber ; but how few kings have ever laid up treasures that 
needed no guarding, — treasures, of which, the more thieves there 
were, the better. . . . who has also devoted the powers of his 
soul and body, and wealth, and place to the spoiling of homes, 
the corruption of the innocent, and the oppression of the poor; 
and has, at this actual moment of his prosperous life, as many 
curses waiting round about him in calm shadow, with their death's 
eyes fixed upon him, biding their time, as ever the poor cob-horse 
had launched at him in meaningless blasphemies, when his fail- 
ing feet stumbled at the stones, . . . the idea that everything 
should " pay " has infected our every purpose so deeply, that even 
when we would play the good Samaritan, we never take out our 
two-pence and give them to the host, without saying, " When I 
come again, thou shalt give me four-pence." . . . 

(311) 



312 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

Why is one man richer than another? Because he is more in- 
dustrious, more persevering, and more sagacious? Well, who 
made him more persevering, and more sagacious? That power 
of endurance, that quickness of apprehension, that calmness of 
judgment, which enable liini to seize the opportunities which oth- 
ers lose, and persist in the lines of conduct in which others fail — 
are these not talent? — are thej not in the present state of the 
world, among the most distinguished and influential of mental 
gifts ? — Rusktn. 

There is Wall Street thundering on, and there are men there 
who are going through all these courses ; and is there nothing that 
shall speak of it? O thou stone-front and high-lifted steeple- 
carrying on it the Cross! O Trinity look down on the street. Is 
there no word that shall coine from this cold and heartless stone? 
Shall men, looking up at thy majestic beauty, think nothing of 
God, and nothing of holiness, and nothing of Him that hung 
upon that gilded cross ? 

A man whose opportunites, whose education, whose providen- 
tial mercies have lifted him into strength and amplitude of means, 
and who einploys the regality of God's bounty — his own reason, 
his own executive skill, his own genius and accomplishments, all 
his means and treasures — only to wTap himself rovind and round 
with the silken, soft web of selfishness — if he is not damnable, 
none is. — H. Wk Beecher. 

Selfishness is the law, and success the Gospel of the millions 
whose noise fills the day here, as it were with the groan of an 
earth-demon. Nobody cares, nobody hears, if any voice is raised 
but the voice of the market, and the song of pleasure. — Cor. Chi- 
cago Tribune hi Neiv York City. 

Let a man attempt to carry into business felloAvship the princi- 
ple of exact and vmwavering honesty ; to go by that against all 
bribes of gain and advantages to buy and sell ; to manufacture; to 
offer and accept and fulfill contracts ; to make every advertisement 
tell the exact truth, and every label a true rescript of the goods it 
covers — how far would he go without finding that he was out of 
place, and by anticipation out of date? Who would be his part- 
ner? would hire him as a traveling agent? would bid for him as a 
chief salesman on the floor of the Avare-room.? — A. L. Stone^ D. D. 



THE ANTI-CHRIST IN SELF. 313 

Men in different occupations and in different places — men nat- 
urally conscientious, ^vho manifestly chafed under the degrada- 
tions they have submitted to, have one and all expressed to me 
the sad belief, that it is impossible to carry on trade with strict 
rectitude. Their concurrent opinion, independently given by 
each, is, that the scrupulously honest man must go to the wall. 

The uniform testimony of competent judges is, that success is 
incompatible with strict integrity. To live in the commercial 
world, it appears necessary to adopt its ethical code ; neither ex- 
ceeding nor falling short of it — neither being less honest or more 
honest. Those who sink below its standard are expelled ; while 
those who rise above it are either pulled down to it or ruined. As 
in self defence, the civilized man becomes savage among savages; 
so it seems, that in self defence, the scrupulous trader is obliged 
to become as little scrupulous as his competitor. It has been said, 
that the law of the animal creation is — " Eat and be eaten," and, 
of our trading community, it may be similarly said that its law is 
— cheat and be cheated. A system of keen competition, carried 
on as it is, without adequate moral restraints, is very much a sys- 
tem of commercial cannibalism. Its alternatives are — use the 
same weapons as your antagonists, or be conquered and devoured. 

There is no good reason for assuming that the trading classses 
are inh'insically worse than other classes. 

Consider well the endowments of laborers, — their capacities, af- 
fections, tastes, and the vague yearnings to which they give birth. 
Think of him now with his caged-up desires doomed to a dailj', 
weekly, yearly round of painful toil, with scarcely any remission 
but for food and sleep. Observe how he is tantalized by the 
pleasures he sees his richer brethren partaking of, but from which 
he must be forever debarred. . . . Remember that he has 
nothing to look forward to but a monotonous continuance of this 
till death. . . . 

We cannot understand another's character except by abandon- 
ing our own identity, and realizing to ourselves his frame of 
mind, his want of knowledge, his hardships, temptations, and dis- 
couragements. — Herbert S;pencer. 

. . . You would be indignant if you saw a stranger walk 
into a theatre or a lecture room, and calmly choosing the best 



314 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

place, take his feeble neighbor by the shoulder, and turn him out 
of it into the back seats, or the street. You would be equally in- 
dignant if you saw a stout fellow thrust himself up to a table 
where some hungry children were being fed, and reach his arm 
over their heads and take their bread from them. But you are 
not the least indignant, if when a man has stoutness of thought 
and swiftness of capacity, and instead of being long-armed only, 
has the much greater gift of being long-headed — you think it per- 
fectly just that he should use his intellect to take the bread out of 
the mouths of all the other men in the town who are of the same 
trade with him ; or use his breadth and sweep of sight to gather 
some branch of the commerce of the country into one great cob- 
tueb, of ■which he is himself to be the central spider, tnahing every 
thread vibrate -with the faints of his claws, and comjnandi?ig every 
avenue ivith the facets of Ms eyes. — Ruskin. — The Spirit of Trade. 

His talk is fine, and his theories do him honor ; but when he 
comes to act as a man, when he comes to exhibit what he is as 
well as what he thinks, it is too commonly found, that four 
months of the rule of so-called philosophers and philanthropists 
are enough to make common men sigh for their old Bourbons and 
Bonapartes. Robespierre, anarchist and philanthropist, Frederick of 
Prussia, despot and philosopher, were both bitter and vitriolic na- 
tures, yet both in their youth exceeded Exeter Hall in their pro- 
fessions of universal beneficence, and evinced in their rants, not 
hypocrisy, but self-delusion. Frederick, indeed, wrote early in 
life a treatise called " The Anti-Machiavel, which was," says his 
biographer, " an edifying homily against almost everything for 
which its author is now remembered among men. — Whipple. 

Perhaps he has a favorite or an only son, for whom he destines, 
with the rest of his treasure, that portion which God was de- 
manding. . . . Suppose, that this son is a man of sensibility 
and deep reflection. Then, his property will often remind him of 
his departed father. And with what emotions.'' This, he will say 
to himself, was my father's god. He did, indeed, think much of 
me, and of securing for me an advantageous condition in life, and 
I am not ungrateful for his care. He professed also not to be un- 
concerned for the interests of his own soul, and the cause of the 
Savior of the world. But alas! it presses on me with irresistible 



THE ANTI-CHKIST IN SELF. 315 

evidence, that the love of money had a power in his heart pre- 
dominant over all other interests. . . . Whither can a soul be 
gone that had such a religion? Would he that acquired, and 
guarded even against the demands of God, these possessions for 
me, and who is thinking of them now as certainly as I am think 
ing of them, oh! would he, if he could speak to me while I am 
pleasing myself that they are mine, tell me that they are the price 
of my father's soul i' — John Foster. 

He may prepare a plan of his life at thirty, on the theory 
that this world, with all its treasures, is a sort of big sweet orange 
he can suck with endless gusto, and then give Lazarus the skin. . 

Or he will make ready for the life to come, by saying prayers, 
going through motions, making professions, shirking responsibil- 
ities, and worrying down doubts, and pampering a minister. . . 
— Robert Collyer. 

The track of his life was strewn with crushed and cast-off loves, 
like orange-peels thrown away after he had sucked out all the 
sweetness. Great and lustrous like an iceberg, floating deep and 
towering high, moving majestic with the strength and swell of 
the ocean, effulgent in the sunshine, a mountain of light, but also 
a mountain of ice. — Goethe. — SamH Harris^ D. D. 

His great success in life was as a political manager. He was a 
man who always worked in the dark, and who was full of secrets, 
— taking one into a corner and whispering to him, as if he were 
his dearest friend, what he does not wish the world to hear. He 
does everything by indirection. If there are two ways to do a 
thing, — one a frank and manly way, and the other a sly and 
stealthy way, — he will choose the latter. — C W. Field on a 
Politician. 

They were Old Testament men, and Old Testament men be- 
lieved in stones. They would, in a moment, answer an idea with 
a stone, and cleave down erratic thinkers with the edge of the 
sword. — Bcce Deus. 

Not worse than men commonly are — rather the contrary ; men 
who professed in a full, or somewhat more than a full measure, 
the religious, moral and patriotic feelings of their religious time 
and people: the very kind of men who, in all times, our own in- 



316 THE CHEIST IN LIFE. 

eluded, have every chance of passing through life blameless and 
respected. — Mill. — Liberty. 

By the fault of its representatives, the very religion w^hich had 
taught the world the ideas of humanity and right, came to be re- 
garded by liberal spirits as the very foe w^hich they must first con- 
quer in their work of vindicating principles which itself had first 
proclaimed. — Religion and the Reign of Terror. — Pressense. 

When a human being ... is made a new creature in 
Christ Jesus, he does not get rid of his old natural disposition and 
temperainent, nor of the training of all his life hitherto: . . 
still more, those special bents and peculiarities of thinking, feeling 
and liking which make the man's idiosyncracy, his special tem- 
per and disposition, — remain in him in a very great degree. — 
Thoughts of a Country Parson. 

How can we know what humility and love there are in the 
hearts of those you call Pharisees ; how they weep in secret over 
the infirmities you despise ; how much they have to overcome; 
how, perhaps, the severity you dislike is only the irritation of a 
heart struggling with its own temptations, and not quite succeed- 
ing.^ — Diary of Kitty Trevylyan. 

The}'- wanted to stereotype the form of religion. . . . Souls 
that had shrunk away from all goodness and nobleness, and with- 
ered into the mummy of a soul. They could jangle about the breadth 
of a phylactery. They could discuss, as if it were a matter of life 
and death, ecclesiastical questions about tithes. They could de- 
cide, to a furlong, the length of journey allowable on the Sabbath 
day. But they could not look with mercy upon a broken heart, 
pouring itself out to God in His temple ; nor suffer a hungry man 
to rub an ear of corn on the Sabbath ; nor cover the shame of a 
tempted sister or an erring brother. — Men without souls, from 
whose narrow hearts the grandeur of everlasting truth was shut 
out. 

The Scribe was a man who turned religion into etiquette. 

The reaction from superstition is infidelity. The reaction from 
ultra-strictness is laxity. The reaction from Pharisaism was the 
Sadducee. And the Sadducee, with a dreadful daring, had had 
the firmness to say : " Well, then, there is no life to come. That 
is settled. I have looked into the abyss without trembling. There 



THE ANTI-CHRIST IN SELF. 317 

is no phantom there. There is neither angel, spirit nor life to 
come. And this glorious thing, man, with his deep thoughts and 
his great, unsatisfied heart, his sorrows and his loves, God-like 
and immortal as he seems, is but dust animated for a time, passing 
into the nothingness out of which he came." That cold and 
hopeless creed was the creed of Sadduceeism. — F. W. Robcrisoji. 

Among the Pharisees were some of the noblest men, — were the 
Puritans of the Jews in contrast with the heathen, — shone like 
stars in the firmament. . . . Relatively to other men, thej 
were superiors; to Christ, were low and even despicable ; — chief 
sins were selfishness, bigotry and narrowness in religious duties 
and views ; « » . had no true pity and humanity in their reli- 
gion ; had worshiping qualities, sentimentality, but no humane 
ethical emotions ; . . . confounded religion itself with the in- 
struments or institutions. . . , They said: "There is a man 
of great power, and we must see whether we can bring him to our 
side and use him." . . . "If this man is with us, we are for 
him; if not, we are against him." . . The president of a 

Theological seminary says: "This seminary was endowed for 
the purpose of preaching the true doctrine. Whoever opposes 
this seminary opposes the true doctrine." The president of a 
Tract society says ; " This society is to diffuse a pure Gospel ; 
and anything that breaks up this society is an obstacle in the way 
of the diffusion of a pure Gospel. . . . Men say : " The 
church is the grand pillar of religion; and if you destroy the 
church, religion will be destroyed. . . . Now churches, and 
seminaries, and Christian institutions of all kinds are only feet 
with which religion walks. 

A man may be so strict that he shall keep Sabbath day like a 
Pharisee and a Puritan ; may pray so that there shall not be an 
unperfumed hour through the day ; a man may keep angels busy 
carrying up his prayers; a man may be so zealous and so active 
that there shall not be a neglected street that his enterprise shall 
not rake and search ; and yet he may not be a growing Christian. 
—H. W. Bcccher. 

They compass sea and land, not to make followers of Christ, 
but folloAvcrs of tl^eir sect. They overlook the heart, that they 
may rectify the head ; and make Christianity, not a vital, inward, 



318 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

efficient principle, expressed in increasing conformity to Jesus 
Christ, but a dry, cold, barren system of modes and speculations. 
. . . There is also a zeal which is the base-born progeny of 
pride and ambition. It is ever busy and active, for it loves to be 
seen and heard, and to acquire influence in the church. It is 
greedy of services which draw attention, and seeks to heighten it- 
self by casting severe reflections on the lukewarmness of others. 
— IV. E. Chanjiing. 

Ecclesiastical ambition is the most devilish of all, for it perverts 
a more interior and more sacred principle than any other, appears 
always in sanctimonious guises, and secretes a more specious and 
deadly poison. — The Heart of Christ. — Sears. 

Sympathetic characters, left uncultivated and given up to their 
sympathetic instincts, are as selfish as others. The difference is 
in the khid of selfishness : theirs is not solitary, but sympathetic 
selfishness : Vegoisme a deux, a troisy or a quatre; and they may be 
very amiable and delightful to those with whom they sympathize, 
and grossly unjust and unfeeling to the rest of the world. Indeed, 
the finer nervous organizations, which are most capable of and 
most require sympathy, have from their fineness so much stronger 
impulses of all sorts, that they often furnish the most striking ex- 
amples of selfishness, though of a less repulsive kind, than thai of 
colder natures. — Mill. — Nature. 

So through all phases of existence, to the smallest details of 
common life, the beautiful character is the unselfish character. . 
. . The essence of true nobility is neglect of self. Let the 
thought of self pass in, and the beauty of a great action is gone, 
like the bloom from a soiled flower. — Froude. — Science of History. 

There is many a Godless man this day, who is encouraging 
himself in the way to rviin and perdition, by thinking of some 
foolish or sinful word or deed of a professing Christian. — Thoughts 
of a Country Parson. 

The hireling preaches because he is paid for it; but he practices 
not. And were his stipend withdrawn, how quickly would he 
withdraw himself froin the pulpit which groans under his heart- 
less exhibitions! In that pulpit he assumes a ministerial air, and 
his face is clothed with solemnity befitting the occasion. He will 
also insist on the externals of the sect to which he happens to bQ- 



THE ANTI-CHRIST IN SELF. 319 

long. . . . He is ambitious, avaricious and passionate. He is 
a stickler for the respect due to his rank. He indulges in the 
same kind of recreations and amuseinents as others. . . He is a 
hireling minister ; he cares not for the sheep ; his only care is for the 
fleece i and dying thus impenitent, unabsolved, he must sink be- 
yond redemption. — Dr. A. Judson on the Ordination of Osgood in 
Burniah. 

His face was a part of his stock in trade, and he vinderstood the 
management of it remarkably well. He kncAv precisely all the 
gradations of smile which were useful for accoinplishing different 
purposes. The solemn smile, the smile of inquiry, the smile af- 
firmative, the smile suggestive, the smile of incredulity, and the 
smile of innocent credulity, which encouraged the simple-hearted 
narrator to go on unfolding himself to the brother, who sat quietly 
behind his face, as a spider does behind his web, waiting till his 
unsuspecting friend had tangled himself in incautious, impulsive, 
and of couise contradictory meshes of statement, which were, in 
some future hour, in the most gentle and Christian spirit, to be 
tightened around the incautious captive, while as much blood was 
sucked as the good of the cause demanded. — Dr. Packthread in 
Nina Gordon. — Mrs. Stotve. 

The cost of the various Indian wars of the past forty years was: 
Black Hawk war, 400 lives and $5,000,000; Seminole war, 7,500 
lives and $100,000,000, only 1,500 of the Indians being warriors; 
with the Creeks and Cherokees, $1,000,000; the Sioux war of 
1862, 300 lives and $40,000,000; the Cheyenne war, in 1867, 300 
lives and $12,000,000; the Indian troubles on the Pacific slope for 
the last twenty years, $300,000,000 ; against the Navajoes, $30,- 
000,000 ; the whole troubles in New Mexico, of which the last 
item forms part, $150,000,000. 

Neither an individual nor a nation can ever commit the least 
act of injustice against the obscurest individual without having to 
pay the penalty for it. — Thoreau. 

- Still insensitive to the last appeal of their greatest living 
statesman. "For England it is a question of shame and dishonor, 
and to cast away shame and dishonor is the first business of a 
great nation." — Gladstone's Manifesto against Coercion of Ireland., 
April 9, '^7. 



The Savior's discourses were all directed to the individual. 
Christ and his Apostles sought to impress upon every man the 
conviction that he must stand or fall alone; — he must live for 
himself, and die for himself, and give up his account to the om- 
niscient God as though he were the only dependent creature in 
the Universe. The Gospel leaves the individual sinner alone with 
himself and his God. . . . He has nothing to hope from the 
aid and sympathy of associates. — Daniel Webster. 

Christ took the individual Israelite by himself apart, made him 
listen for the voice of his conscience, and said to him, in effect, 
"If every c>7?e would mend <?;/^, we should have a new world." — 
Literature and Dogma. — Arnold. 

All virtue lies in individual action, in inward energy, in self- 
determination. There is no moral worth in being swept away in 
a crowd, even towards the best objects. 

One of the strongest features of our times is the tendency of 
men to run into associations, to lose themselves in masses, to 
think and act in crowds, to act from the excitement of numbers, 
to sacrifice individuality, to identify themselves with parties and 
sects. 

The writings which have quickened, electrified, regenerated the 
human mind, did not spring from associations. . . . Associa- 
tions are chiefly useful by giving means and opportunities to 
gifted individuals to act out their own minds. A missionary so- 
ciety achieves little good, except when it can send forth an indi- 
vidual who wants no teaching or training from the society, but 
who carries his commission and chief power in his own soul. — 
Dr. Channing. 

Every organization is the representation of an idea; . . . 
never or rarely has been faithful in its application. — Wendell 
Phillips. 

The object "toward which every human being must ceaselessly 
direct his efforts, and on which especially those who design to in- 
fluence their fellow men must ever keep their eyes, is the individ- 
uality of power and development." — Humboldt. Rioted in Mill 
on Liberty. 



(320) 



CHAPTEE VI. 



THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE SOCIETY^ 

And He called to Him the twelve and began to send them forth 
by twos. — Mark vi: 7. 

Asa traveler about to leave his home, committing authority to 
his servants, — giving to each one his work, commands the porter 
to watch. — Mark xiii: 34. 

He gave ... to each one according to his individual abil- 
ity. ... Be occupied in business till I come. — Matth. xxv:i^^ 
Luke xix:ij. 

And Jesus having come spoke to them, saying : All power in 
heaven and on earth was given to Me. Going therefore, disciple all 
the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the 
Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things 
whatsoever I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you 
alway, unto the end of the world. — Matth. xxviii: 18-20. 

And Paul, having selected Silas, departed, having been com- 
mitted to the grace of God by the brethren. — Acts xv: 40. 

Jesus failed not to avail Himself of opportunities 
to impress masses of men in large cities, or on thor- 
ough-fares, as they thronged about Him; but His 
primary and direct aim was to reach individuals in 
personal contact. His pithiest, weightiest, most im- 
pressive utterances were elicited in such interviews. 
His followers, therefore, should seek not only to 

I. The stihstance of this chapter was published in pamphlet 
form just before the Great Fire in Chicago October, 1871. Most 
of the edition was consumed in that fire. 
21 (3^) 



322 THE CHEIST IN LIFE. 

reach the minds, the consciences, the hearts of as- 
semblies on Seventh-day, and other special occasions, 
but to touch felicitously, Ghristianly, individual souls 
every day. 

True: men exist, and must act in society for many 
common interests and ends. The common weal and 
the individual interest are, respectively, the centrip- 
etal and the centrifugal forces of the social system. 
The first duty of the individual is to God and self, 
then to others. But certain material, political, social 
and spiritual ends cannot, or as well be wrought by 
individuals working singly, as in union with others. 
In such cases, associated work will be more efficient 
and economic. Hence, the political and Christian 
uses of nations, states, parties, communities and soci- 
eties. History evidences, that men commonly and 
disastrously abdicate their individual personal sov- 
ereignty, — rarely assert and maintain it, becoming 
the supple and the servile instruments of others, 
pliantly suffering it to be merged, — apparently lost in 
the combined sentiment and action. Individual re- 
sponsibility cannot be lost in such social amalgamation 
of creed and conduct. Each one must answer for 
one's self. To each one is a talent. To each one is 
its accountable use. Nations, communities answer 
for themselves at the bar of human history; — the in- 
dividuals of them, — directly to their Maker. 

Jesus commissioned His disciples to evangelize 
the world. Whether they, who at the first were thus 
impressively addressed and solemnly charged, were 
an ecclesiastical organization, through which, succes- 
sors — single churches to the end of time would come 



THE COMMISSION GIVEN TO DISCIPLES. 323 

to be like commissioned; or, whether they were an 
unorganized company of believers, cannot be de- 
termined from the sacred record. The specification 
by Jesus of the h.ylr^Gia^ — chui'ch, assembly, company, 
— in the eighteenth of Matthew, as the last resort, the 
ultimate tribunal for investigation and adjustment, 
when alienation and difficulty had arisen between 
brethren, and the use of the same term in the declar- 
ation to Peter, Matthew xvi., seem to recognize the 
prior existence of such organization. Others think, 
that such technical ecclesia was not known until after 
the Ascension: that the directions given were merely 
such general prescriptions as the Great Teacher 
might naturally give for the regulation of the per- 
sonal intercourse of His disciples with each other, — 
having made Love the test of discipleship and the 
basis of all His requirements: that the term ecclesia 
was not employed by Him in the sense to which it 
came subsequently to be restricted in the New Testa- 
ment, but in its ordinary acceptation of an affiliating 
company — assembly; that these organized bodies grew 
out of the social and the elective tendencies, the spiritual 
necessities of renewed natures, rather than from oral 
or written prescription: that in every community 
where the Word of Jesus prevailed and converts were 
made. His disciples would, thus prompted, naturally 
come together to sing His praises, to supplicate His 
divine direction, and as a perpetual reminder, to cel- 
ebrate as He enjoined the Memorial Supper : that the 
inspired apostles found it necessary, for the sake of 
order and purity, to prescribe rules for the constitution 
and regimen of these bodies of believers. 



324 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

It is questionable, whether churches as now con- 
stituted, even the most independent, though ortho- 
dox in creed, are the proximate reals of the Ideal in 
the mind of the Founder. Those which existed in the 
first settlements on the New England coast, when to 
no single person as preacher, teacher, pastor or ruler 
was entrusted such ecclesiastical preeminence, seem 
to have come nearer to the Ideal of the Master. Paul's 
Church Manual declares: " But unto each one of us 
was the grace given according to the measure of the 
gift of Christ. — He gave some to be apostles, and some 
prophets; and some evangelists, and some pastors 
and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, unto 
the work of ministering, unto the building up of the 
body of Christ." Eph. 4: 7-12. The office of ruler is 
not found in the specification. In I Cor. xii : 28, the 
apostle enumerates eight specific offices, or spheres 
of church work, to fill which, "God hath set," (con- 
stituted) as many members of the church. The sev- 
enth rendered "governments" in the old and new 
versions, means, in the original, simply superintend- 
ents or directors, — such as would be considered in 
our day as good business brethren. A pastor, indeed, 
must be one who " rules well his own house, having 
his children in subjection with all gravity," as a qual- 
ification for "taking care," or superintending, (not 
ruling) "of the church of God." I Tim. iii:4, 5. It 
is true, " elders " are frequently referred to in some 
of the Epistles, as if they designated a special class 
of officers in the primitive churches ; but it is believed 
that the original word was used simply to designate 
the seniors, — the aged among the laity or the clergy, 



LORDING OVER GOD'S HERITAGE. 325 

as entitled to special respect fi'om their age, — there- 
fore experience. The term in I Tim. v: 17, as also, 
its cognates in I Tim. iii : 4-12, and in Kom. xii : 8 
might be more correctly translated superintend, sup- 
ervise, oversee: that is, let the senior or the older 
who be wise in the administration of temporal or 
spiritual affairs in their own homes or the church 
" be counted worthy of double honor," *' especially 
those who labor in the word and in teaching;" so that 
it will be seen from the structure of the verse, 
the injunction is not confined to the seniors in the 
ministry, but that it includes also the seniors among 
the laity. If one is a " ruler," so is the other. Paul 
is referring to qualifications or characteristics, not to 
office. 

In some denominations, legislative and executive 
authority is vested in a few, and those — clergymen 
who are supposed to embody superior talent, wisdom 
and piety. At elections for such positions, there is a 
clerical scramble for them, preceded, sometimes, by 
electioneering that would equal the adroitness and 
unscrupulosity of secular politicians. It is assumed, 
that the individual churches or societies are not com- 
petent to rule themselves or to know their own wants. 
These few bishops or elders select pastors, formulate 
rules of church government, arraign, try and disci- 
pline offenders; in important convocations for the 
evangelization of men, deny to the common member- 
ship the vote. Thus, the development of the single 
churches and their individual members is repressed. 
For such procedure, there is no warrant or precedent 
in the Scriptures. The utterance of Jesus is decisive 



326 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

in regard to it. The rulers of the Gentiles lord it 
over them, and their great ones exercise authority 
over them. Not so shall it be among you; but who- 
soever would become great among you shall be your 
servant; and whosoever would be first among you 
shall be your bond-servant; even as the Son o£ Man 
came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and 
to give His life a ransom for many. Matth. xx:25, 
Luke xxii : 25. 

The brotherhood of many bodies of believers, from 
whose intelligence and piety, the ripe fruits of a ma- 
tured and symmetrical Christianity are expected, de- 
ny to the sisterhood equality of participation in ec- 
clesiastical transactions, and in the devotions of 
church life. By such denial, the right, responsibility 
and ])rivileges of one-half, if not more, of these fam- 
ilies of the Christ are ignored; their spiritual free- 
dom, development and elevation repressed. Nearly 
three-fourths of the members of the Congregational 
churches at one time in Boston were females. The 
old leaven of heathenism is not yet thoroughly purged 
out from these Christian bodies. From them, the 
kingdom of Heaven is yet afar off. They have only 
partially seen its glory, beauty and strength. Until 
the churches and mankind are blessed with full and 
unrestrained development of women's gifts and graces, 
the manifestation of Christianity will be chiefly 
through one side of the human, — to that extent in- 
complete; and the love element, — more persuasive 
than logic, more efficacious in its influence upon the 
heart, than the presentation of the truth itself, will 



THE COMMISSION TO EVERY DISCIPLE. 327 

be sadly absent from means and measures employed 
to Christianize the world. 

The Friends in worship, not o£ course in every fea- 
ture of teaching and practice ; and the missions of the 
Young Men's Christian associations in action, seem 
to be the extant representatives of the primitive form 
and practice. The churches or the societies of the 
Pilgrim Fathers recognized several persons as teach- 
ers and guides according to their specific gifts. In 
churches thus organized and administered, one stood 
over against another to balance any undue assumption 
on his part, of possessing, through nature, education, 
or grace, a monopoly of all the varieties of ecclesias- 
tical talent. Of course, with such counterpoise of 
gift and such counterbalance of authority and influ- 
ence, there must have been more liberty of speech 
and action in church life than in our times, — not out- 
side of it, since those who indulged in it, did it to the 
peril of their backs or their ears, — when one fallible, 
with a selected board of deacons or vestrymen as 
lieutenants, is allowed, automatically to wield such a 
body, and to place undue stress upon the perform- 
ance of certain external acts as tests of fidelity, — with 
no recognition of the prior and the superior behests 
of each individual conscience. Christianity is some- 
thing deeper, broader than mere church-going on 
Seventh day or the First day, than public exhortation 
and prayer on a week day, than even in money-giving 
so much per month, and in being present at Commun- 
ion seasons so many iimes a year, though these are 
important in their relations, and are indicative of 
God-loving, Christ-loving, soul-loving. They are sec- 



328 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

ondary in importance however to some higher and 
more comprehensive things. The Christian disciple 
is called to liberty, and not to be put into an eccle- 
siastical straight- jacket. To develop the thought and 
its expression by Henry Ward Beecher, — churches 
are but hands and feet to take, help and guide one for 
usefulness to others, and to a happy entrance upon 
the celestial life. 

Unfavorable comparisons have been made, or 'rath- 
er the facts themselves do make the comparison, be- 
tween the work of churches and that of the various 
missions of the Young Men's Christian associations, 
through which thousands above the average of al- 
leged conversions in the churches are rescued and 
professedly brought into the spiritual kingdom, at 
vastly less expenditure of material means; and their 
Head-quarters, — costly or humble, are open every day 
and night in the week for spiritual service and work, 
and not chiefly, on the First day. 

But, in justice to the churches, it should be consid- 
ered, that they are not merely and exclusively in- 
strumentalities as soul-savers, but are also soul-cultur- 
ers— which is not so demonstrative and summary 
work, — in numbers or results. 

Jesus unquestionably commissioned disciples as 
individuals or as churches formal or informal, — not 
unbelievers — men in general, simply because it would 
have been irrational to commit an enterprise to those 
who had no faith or interest in it; who, therefore, 
were disqualified to embark in it. But in doing good 
to the bodies and souls of men, there cannot be any 



SOCIETIES FOR BENEFICENCE. 329 

monopoly claimed on the part of any sect, society, 
class, or order of men, or of all combined. Jesus for- 
bade it. Mark ix: 38-39. Luke ix: 49-50. It is for- 
bidden in the nature of goodness. The privilege is 
as free as air or sunshine, to believer and unbeliever 
alike. If any man is philanthropic, he is in sympa- 
thy with Jesus to that extent. Nor does it follow 
that those who are "without," — the unevangelized, 
may not have responsibilities in this work; but be- 
cause they would not have heart to take it up in con- 
sequence of their unrenewed state; because they 
would be destitute of grace precedent to faith, — the 
basis of all hope of success which originates, impels 
and sustains Christian action; because it would be 
spiritually impossible that such should enter upon it 
and persevere in it from Christly motives. They are 
indeed responsible for the destitution of that 
which they might possess, and therefore for all the 
good that might ensue from the possession. 

Churches nor the members of which they are com- 
posed can do all the good necessary to be done in 
the world; and whatever societies outside of them — 
joint stock or eleemosynary, and their individual 
members — making no pretensions to be regenerate 
persons, or to be actuated by the purely Christian 
impulse, — whatever they can do to relieve the wants 
or to ameliorate the sufferings of others, it is their 
privilege and duty to do. Their benevolence, — phil- 
anthropy are noble; and so far as they have been 
originated by the love which Jesus prescribed, they 
are Christian. For illustration: The objects of the 
"Illinois Catholic Order of Foresters" — not a secret so- 



330 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

ciety, as declared in its constitution, are truly noble 
and Christ-like, to the extent of their application. They 
are, — "to promote friendship, unity, and true Christian 
charity among its members — friendship in assisting 
each other by every honorable means in our power; 
unity in uniting together for mutual support in sick- 
ness and death, and in making suitable provision for 
widows and orphans of deceased members; true 
Christian charity in doing unto each other as we 
should like others to do unto us." 

Does not the organization of so many of them sug- 
gest to the Christian churches the query, whether 
they may not in cities be spending too much time, 
relatively, in the establishment of sectarian missions, 
in psalm singing, exhortation and experience telling, 
and not enough proportionally in ministering, not 
only to the souls, but to the bodies of the needy and 
the suffering poor — in seeking, searching for them? 
The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. 
Luke xix:10. 

As to the lawfulness, consistency of the affiliation 
of Christians with organizations which claim to find 
their origin in the remote depths of antiquity; and 
which, as a condition of membership require the 
hiding of their transactions, and whatever light 
they have under a bushel, by oaths with severe pen- 
alties attached: the staple of whose exercises consist 
in drilling into the mastery of " degrees " of little if 
any practical utility; in the performance of fantastic 
ceremonies interlarded with the pronunciation of 
bombastic and obsolete phraseology; whose rites over 
the dead have a tendency to delude the living as to 



THE COMMISSION TO DISCIPLES. 33l 

their condition and destiny; a large proportion of 
whose funds are squandered in toggery, trinkets, 
and parades; whose benevolent feature of caring for 
the poor and the afflicted in their associated families 
alone, is, though a Christ-like work so far as it goes, 
after all, but the deed of a society for mutual benefit, 
not for general benevolence outside as well as inside 
of membership; there is reason to believe, that were 
Jesus now in the flesh, He would reiterate the in- 
junction upon His disciples with respect to the ob- 
jectionable features specified: " Have no fellowship 
with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather re- 
prove them." 

Mighty is the potency of masses of men in associ- 
ation and combination, — like-minded and like hearted 
for the achievement of good or bad purposes. Their 
voice is like that of many waters, and of a great thun- 
der. The lavish use of such enginery, for the arous- 
ing, stimulation, and combination of the mental or 
spiritual forces of men, is a marked characteristic of 
the present century. Every specific benevolence or 
philanthropic movement requires the creation of a 
society to represent it, or is succeeded by one. ^ 
Unquestionably such organizations ape efficient for 
the attainment of certain ends. Numbers are potent. 
Union is magnetic. Men need the stimulation and 
inspiration of each other in association. But evils 

I . The Chinese have a remarkable propensity for forming cor- 
porations, — one for every class, for every kind of trade, for every 
undertaking, and all descriptions of business ; even the beggars 
and robbers all form themselves into communities, more or less 
numerous. — Abbe Hicc. 



332 THE CHBIST IN LIFE. 

have developed in their administration, which make 
it questionable in the minds of some, whether the ef- 
ficiency for good — especially in the multiplying of 
such associations, is not overbalanced by the efficiency 
for evil in administration. They tend to the de- 
struction of individuality and to the loss of the recog- 
nition of personal and individual responsibility. They 
usurp the special work of the individual. 

For the deliverance of His Gospel message to men 
in every portion of the earth, it does not seem prob- 
able, that Jesus issued the commission to such indi- 
vidual disciples alone as might be impressed that it 
was their duty to undertake to execute it, and, them 
in societies external to those — instituted, as is held, 
by Jesus Himself or by His authority. The injunc- 
tion must have been to them, whether as churches or 
as individuals. There is individual, and there is as- 
sociate or combined responsibility in the world's 
evangelization. If the assumption of such work by 
such individual members as are moved to combine 
together " without " for its prosecution, — not as indi- 
viduals but as corporations, voluntary or close, — re- 
sponsible to none but themselves, in which their 
individuality is blended or distinctively lost, and per- 
sonal responsibility apparently, though not in reality 
sunk, — for no man can escape his personal account- 
ability for the sanction given by the use of his name 
or of his influence in a society or corporation, — he 
cannot in reality lose it in societies, communities or 
nations; — if the assumption of such work by such 
bodies, not recognized or amenable as churches, is 
expedient, then it would seem they need not be fet- 



FOUNDERS OF MODERN SOCIETYISM. 333 

tered by those regulations which Jesus prescribed for 
them in ecclesiastical life, but be guided only by their 
own notions of wisdom or policy. It is easy to per- 
cieve, from inevitable tendencies in human nature, 
abundantly exemplified in history, that there is noth- 
ing to hinder them, outside of sanctifying, preserving 
grace, from coming to be wielded by a few — the ablest, 
the most sagacious, the aspiring and perhaps self- 
seeking, — secretaries, boards, executive committees. 
Of necessity, the keenest in intellect, the subtlest 
strdent of human nature, the strongest in will, come 
to wield them as by the will of one. If that one could 
only be infallible as was the Master, unquestionably, 
it would be for the good of mankind. Ignatius Loy- 
ola, the founder of modern Societyism, was, so far as 
men can judge, a sincere Christian; so were many if 
not most of his early associates. The end of the 
means employed was certainly Christly; it was noth- 
ing less than the Christianization of the world. These 
early Jesuits were undoubtedly self-denying, heroic. 
But what a potent enginery for evil the Society sub- 
sequently became through its irresponsibility to the 
churches, — its constitutionally required, as well as 
naturally tending subjection to the will of a few or of 
one! Such regimen under the intellectually strong, 
sagacious and wise, who for the most part are clergy- 
men, may prove most efficient for what is undertaken 
to be wrought, but the Christly spirit and the enter- 
prise in the individuals of the humbler laity are not 
properly developed. 

Doubtless, the origin of these societies, among 
Protestants, as among Papists, grew out of the leth- 



334 THE CHKISr IN LIFE. 

argy of the churches with respect to foreign rais- 
sions, conjoined with the fact that the ambitious, the 
enterprising, the zealous or the self-seeking, found 
that they could not manipulate them with the facility 
that they could external bodies, — voluntary, ecclesias- 
tically irresponsible, and untrammeled. But the 
apathetic churches should have been quickened, puri- 
fied, stimulated to take hold of their appropriate work, 
instead of being thus abandoned. 

Congregationalists inaugurated the grand foreign 
missionary movement in the United States nearly 
eighty years since, which has been fruitful in such 
glorious results among the heathen. But, in the con- 
struction of instrumentalities therefor, they unfortu- 
nately fastened on their churches a system of means, 
the eradication of whose roots from their ecclesias- 
tical soil with their interlacing fibres, or, even, their 
mere loosening, will require the assembling of many 
"National Conferences." To reconstruct, or to take 
the House of Lords out of the British Constitution, 
do the Commons find it easy? 

" Power 



Strong in possession, founded in old custom ; 
Power by a thousand tough and stringy roots 
Fix'd to the people's pious nursery faith. 



-For time consecrates ; 



And what is gray with age becomes religion." i 

These bodies have been composed of the elite of 
the churches, — in ability, culture, and enterprise, — 
embracing a large amount of their piety. Some of 
them have become colossal in structure and move- 
ment. They are as efficient, as mighty in combina- 

I. Wallenstein. 



THE WORK COMMITTED TO ALL DISCIPLES. 335 

tion, in resources, men and means, as ever was " the 
Society of Jesns." No assemblages grander, more 
impressive, more inspiring than those of the Ameri- 
can Board ever convened. The atmosphere pervading 
them, at times, has been redolent of Heaven. Their 
results for the last half -century have been grand; no 
achievements in the spiritual history of the world 
since Pentecost have been so wonderful. They en- 
able the Christian to anticipate the glorious consum- 
mation of the mission and the work of Jesus, not only 
through faith, but through sight of what has been 
achieved. 

But serious evils, gigantic corruptions, have grown 
up with them. They overshadow with baleful influ- 
ence the great good they have achieved. The hugest 
are close corporations; they perpetuate themselves; 
neither churches as such nor the great body of the 
sustaining people control them ; they are chiefly of- 
ficered and wielded by a class, — the strongest of the 
clergy, and the co-operating laity; widows and other 
poor contributors who can only cast in mites, — whose 
alms and prayers prevail with God, have no potency 
in their administration, not even a paper or a sheep- 
skin certificate of life-membership. True: the Christly- 
moved need not, desire not such incitements, such 
ends to their giving. But the Societies in action need 
their prayers, influence, and co-operation. The amount 
of money annually to be disbursed; the ramified 
system of agencies to be directed; the multiform is- 
sues of the press to be distributed; the direction of 
so many men and women; are powers too extensive 
to be intrusted to a few, fallible and frail, — as are alL 



336 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

The Societies will inevitably come in time to be 
wielded by the one master-minded of them all, if he 
is adequate, subtle, politic and wise, or by him who, 
though he may be intellectually inferior to others of 
his coadjutors, yet, from the authority vested in his 
official position, the facilities and opportunities thus 
afforded to consolidate it, is made more than a match 
for his associates, if he is disposed to play the master. 
There are few with grace sufficient to resist the temp- 
tation to use or abuse the power placed within their 
grasp, especially if they are arbitrarily inclined, and 
every man, it is said, has a pope in him. It is not be- 
lieved that Jesus intended that so much power should 
be committed into the hands of a few men, — much less 
the one man who may, by superior intellectual strength, 
or what is more probable, by the facilities of position 
and opportunity, have worked his way to the head of 
his order. It is not believed He contemplated, that 
so comparatively few of the brotherhood and sister- 
hood should assume the responsibility of conducting 
a work which, it is evident. He devolved upon all; 
that such few should seclude this work to themselves, 
and entail it to their class and their elect; that the 
disbursement of the funds contributed by believers 
in general; the various agencies of persons and the 
press; above all, that the missionaries and their work 
should be wielded automatically by the wills of 
Boards, Committees, Secretaries; — the Head-Centers 
and Ecclesiastical Generals of the organizations. 

It is believed, that He would have every active sol- 
dier of His, who is evidently commissioned, go to the 
spiritual battle field, equipped with the weapons that 



MISSIONARIES UNDER DIRECTION OF BOARDS. 337 

nature, discipline, and grace had prepared for him, — 
left free to war spiritually in the way, and at the 
times, his genius and his sanctified judgment dictate ; 
that, if he could not go formally commissioned by 
churches of which he may be a member, he might on 
his individual election and responsibility, as did Paul 
and the earlier disciples. These primitive disciples, 
when dispersed through persecution, went everywhere 
preaching the Word, as they were individually 
impressed by rational or super-rational convic- 
tion, without waiting for the commission of fallible 
brethren, who could not assume and execute respon- 
sibilities exclusively personal to them as individuals. 
Many members of these Boards and some Secre- 
taries have been among the best and the wisest of 
men, — memories of whom will ever be pleasant and 
fragrant. There have been others, the savor of whose 
doings will not be so sweet-smelling. Though they 
may have been great and good, they could never as- 
sume the obligations of others, — though inferior to 
them in mental or gracious endowments. What is 
the fact, — with respect to those ardent, earnest natures 
who surrender their bodies and souls with their con- 
victions to the will and direction of Boards and Sec- 
retaries? Do they not sink their personal responsi- 
bility with respect to the kind and mode of their 
work, much as did a Catholic inferior to the will of 
his superior? Do they not go forth to the mission- 
ary field with intellectual and moral natures, with ed- 
ucational endowments, with spiritual convictions, re- 
pressed or cramped and trammeled? Are they not 

22 



338 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

subject to the espionage of the missionary coterie 
with which they may be associated? If they are self- 
reliant by original make or through grace; or if they 
are conscientiously insubordinate to the cast, direct- 
ion and measures of the fallible Board, or still more 
fallible Secretary, thousands of miles afar; are they 
not reported by this coterie to the management at 
home? Will not, — after measures to secure sub- 
mission and repression have proved ineffectual, — if 
not recalled and dismissed from the service, — will 
not their cases be prudentially taken under advise- 
ment, and at the proper time, they not be peremptorily 
ordered or affectionately invited home, then sent 
into some distant section of the home field, to pine in 
silence and to die ? Is not such an end of a trustful 
and consecrated life very sad? Is it not excruciating 
to refined sensitive ones, as such devoted men and 
women are ? 

The course of the Master was significantly different. 
He rebuked immediately and effectually where re- 
buke was needed. He was infallible. Boards and Sec- 
retaries are not.^ He was ever patient, charitable, 
tolerant with human infirmity. In the realm of the 
spiritual liberty provided for His followers, there is 
ample room for the by-play of every natural and gra- 
cious endowment, and it may be added, for the aber- 
rations of believers, — inseparable from their develop- 

I. A useful member of the Board was one who would origi- 
nate nothing, and always vote with Mr. Bulstrode. . . . 

Mrs. Bulstrode believed, that her husband was one of those 
men whose memoirs should be written when they died. — Middle- 
march. 



PAUL AND SILAS COMMITTED TO THE GKACE OF GOD. 339 

ment. Violent eradication or repression by others 
like fallible and frail, of what is deemed by them 
abnormal, unsightly, and unlovely in disciples, if it 
could be achieved, would result only in the destruct- 
ion of individuality and in the paralysis of usefulness. 
As Jesus seemed to intimate, excellency and defect 
should be suffered to grow together unto their har- 
vest; when the wheat of one will be gathered into the 
garner, and the tare of the other into the fire. Time, 
light, reflection, gracious instruction, and reproof will 
rectify the deflection of the consecrated mind and 
heart, round off the angularities of nature, and sym- 
metrize Christian character. Souls which are open 
for the in-dwelling of the Spirit, will never fail to be 
guided by Him into all the Truth. Because Peter 
was presumptuous and the sons of Zebedee vengeful, 
did the Master cast them out? — recall their commis- 
sion? — even suspend them? He dealt with disciples 
as with children. Thus God, the Father deals with 
all in His providence. Thus should all earthly and 
spiritual parents or guardians, — with theirs, and their 
wards. 

When the contention between Barnabas and Paul 
was so sharp, that they parted asunder one from the 
other, because the former " determined to take with 
them " his kinsman Mark, and the latter thought it 
not good to do so since Mark withdrew from them 
at Pamphilia and went not with them to the work, — 
an inefficient — or recalcitrant, — "crooked stick," — 
"broken tooth," — "foot out of joint" as he may have 
been; the brethren of the church at Antioch or at the 
" head-quarters " in Jerusalem did not undertake to 



340 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

forbid the entrance of frail Mark into a missionary 
field; nor did Paul himself, — who evidently was the 
stronger party, and carried with him the majority of 
the sentiment, and the confidence of the brethren in 
Antioch, — for it is stated, that he departed with Silas 
in the place of Mark, " being recommended " literally 
having been given over or committed, " by the breth- 
ren unto the grace of God," — -rcapado^eU rjy ^dpixt TOO 

0£ou OTTO rajv ddsX^aJv, ^ undertake to wield his overshad- 
owing influence with his brethren, to induce them to 
put the ban upon peccable Mark. Peter and Paul, 
also, differed essentially on important topics of faith 
and practice. It is evident that the apostolic mission- 
aries were a self-reliant, independent class of individ- 
uals, as all Godly, Christly-educated men will, must 
be. The Boards of our time could not have manipu- 
lated or repressed such. Timber springing out of 
such soil will always be more gnarly than straight- 
grained or elastic. 

Labor unions in large cities illustrate the tyranny 
with which associations can be wielded to repress in- 
dividual freedom, — to prevent individuals from sel- 
ling, — in the exercise of their right, their services 
material or mental, for the interest of themselves and 
dependents. Not only have they been driven off 
from their place of occupation, but they have been 
violently assaulted on the streets and their lives im- 
perilled, as they went to and from their homes. 

As at present constructed, religious organizations 
do not foster, rather tend to repress independency of 
thought, — individual expression, by their power to 

I. Acts xiv: 23-26; xv:4o. 



REPEESSION OF INDIVIDUALITY. 341 

combine and wield opinion. Their zeal, energy, 
enterprise, piety never equal that of the average of 
their members. The conservative prevail in them 
through their vis ineriice. The centripetal gains upon 
the centrifugal. The tendency is to a dead center. 
The individuality of those who would be in good re- 
pute in them is lost. Slavishness of opinion, subserv- 
iency of spirit are induced. Only a certain class of 
minds — of temperaments, — the pliable, the slow- 
moving, the conservative, or those who choose to be 
subtle can rise in them to position or influence. The 
retiring, the unaspiring, the unostentatious, the fear- 
less, the single-minded and straight-forward are ig- 
nored; the independent by constitution or through 
grace, the conscientiously recusant are tabooed. To 
the first only is the eye directed for official successors 
by those in power; and they alone are kept in train- 
ing for the purpose at the anniversaries, in the com- 
position of committees, or in the moving of controlling 
resolutions previously prepared. Such institutions 
accord well with the Papacy, or with Episcopacy — 
off-shoot of the same, and to a certain extent with 
Presbyterianism, which more consistently prefers 
the use of church boards elected by assemblies, made 
up of accredited delegates from churches, synods, and 
presbyteries, to that of organizations unelected by its 
churches, and irresponsible to them or it. But they 
do not accord with Independency or Congregational- 
ism, where the will of the majority is supposed ever 
to prevail, and which are professedly the democracy 
of the sects. 
From the necessity of their official relations to the 



342 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

Boards which commission them, their commitment, 
in advance, of obedience to "instructions," and 
through the entire period of their service, their vir- 
tual pledge to refrain from or to repress public ex- 
pression of convictions or opinions with respect to 
the wisdom or justness of official measures, — the mis- 
sionaries themselves sent out come in time to be of 
the pliant sort. Those differently constituted or ed- 
ucated are discouraged. If, by some oversight or 
mistaken judgment of character, unmanageable ones 
have got into the mission field; as has been previously 
said, efforts are naturally made to get them home, or 
they are goaded into resignation unless they are too 
strong to be crushed out; — then, — it is sad to state, 
efforts sometimes have been made to destroy their 
reputation at home. Of one such, a missionary Sec- 
retary remarked: " God may be able to work with 
him, but men can't." He should have said: If God 
can work with him, men can, I can and ought. Once 
home, such unpliant laborers retire to private station 
or secular employment, or are exiled through stress 
of circumstances to some distant portion of the home 
field, where the beautiful of life to them having van- 
ished, losing heart and hope, they are left to pine 
and die, as hopelessly, as sadly, as ever did a refrac- 
tory priest in the dungeon of the Inquisition. 

They are chiefly officered by clergymen, and some- 
times by returned missionaries, who if they have been 
called into the ministry, and that among the heathen, 
should have given their lives to it. If they could not 
find churches to support them, they should do as did 
Paul, support themselves by brain work or hand 



NOT MONEY — BUT THE HOLY SPIBIT. 343 

work in some secular vocation, and gird themselves 
to the work of the Lord as opportunity opens. 

Would Paul have stood so pre-eminently distin- 
guished through the ages for Christian heroism, and 
have bequeathed to humanity such a sublime example 
of self-abnegation and disinterestedness for its adorn- 
ment and Christianization, if, — after a farewell to 
weeping loved and loving ones, exclaiming to them 
" Why do ye weep and break my heart?" — flaming 
through the Eastern hemisphere with the avowal of 
being ready for a yoke of service or an altar of sacrifice, 
spending scores of years among the heathen 
until he had become acclimated, acquiring such 
familiarity with their tongue as to communicate to 
them in it the wonderful works and words of God, 
measurably overcoming the multifarious obsta- 
cles that confront a missionary in the daring, and hu- 
manly forlorn attempt to eradicate a religious belief 
of ages, and to substitute therefor an exotic and an- 
tagonistic creed, — would he have continued to be a 
burning and a shining light through all succeeding 
times, — if he had returned to Jerusalem or Antioch, 
to spend the balance of his days comfortably as a 
Secretary or Agent of a Society? "No man, having 
put his hand to the plough and looking back, is fit 
for the kingdom of God." Luke ix: 62. 

The accumulated funds of Book Concerns, Bible, 
Tract and Publication Societies are means of corrup- 
tion to those who have to do with their disbursement. 
One of the uses of such, besides the issue of denom- 
inational literature and collateral purposes, is the 
furnishing of pabulum for an " organ " and provender 



844 THE CHMST IN LIFE. 

for an editor, who perhaps had " made a mess of it " 
in some previous vocation. They unwarrantably in- 
terfere with individual enterprises, by their ability to 
use funds — not always contributed for such purpose 
— to undersell the market, at or below the cost of 
manufacture, — a violation of the equitable principles 
of business, to which, it is not believed, the direct ex- 
ecutors of the Saviour's Commission are ever called. 
Their strength is from above, not from beneath. It 
is not so much money that they want, as the invig- 
oration, illumination and guidance of the Holy Spirit. 
God will pour money enough into their coffers, if they 
will trust Him, — limit and concentrate their endeav- 
ors, as He has limited and centered. If money ad- 
equate, as they compute, does not come, and with the 
speed they aspire for, let them wait. God waited 
four thousand years before He sent His Son. They 
are not responsible for the quick or tardy evangeliza- 
tion of men, only for the faithful discharge of what 
is committed to their trust. They must work no faster 
than as He opens the way. They are agents, not 
principals, — executors, not legislators, — servants, not 
Master. Their vocation is single, specific. God will 
work overrulingly, through commercial enterprises, 
and all the avenues of trade, for the realization of 
His grand designs, — is combining all things to con- 
verge to the glorious end. But the special requisition 
upon those whom He has called to execute His Gos- 
pel Commission is to publish and expound it, and to 
illustrate the truth in their lives, to give themselves 
to it as they are prepared by nature and grace; some 
to teach, some to preach, some to pray, some to sing, 



SOCIETIES OVERSHADOWING THE CHURCHES. 345 

some to write, the many to give as the Lord has pros- 
pered them. They can't serve God and Mammon at 
the same time. If they would serve Mammon while 
they are serving God — for the sake of serving Him^ let 
them become incorporated under another name. 

Societies have wielded a dangerous power over the 
churches — in the selection and retention of their pas- 
tors, in the direction of their spiritual forces, and 
pecuniary contributions. The Secretaries and Agents 
"have a passion for" their calling. They are ex- 
pected to have it in fact or professionally. They will 
magnify it of course; they will not fail to endeavor 
to obtain a shaping and controlling influence over 
the great sources of their material and spiritual pros- 
perity. They will be conscientious in doing it, and 
with their professions, it might be expected they 
would be zealous and politic; nor can they be re- 
prehended for it, having such confidence in the abso- 
lute as well as relative importance of their societies. 
Their brethren should not lead them into temptation. 
To acquire such influence here, there and everywhere 
will be their constant study. They will have time for 
it, while the pastors and members of their churches 
are absorbed in their various religious and secular oc- 
cupations. Secretaries, in large cities particularly, 
have been known to settle and unsettle pastors, as 
these pastors have favored or disfavored their pet or- 
ganizations. Independent and self-reliant, yet de- 
voted and true ministers of the Lord Jesus, have often 
found it difficult to obtain a foothold in the confidence 
of churches needing pastors, through the baleful in- 
fluence of some Secretary or Agent interposed. The 



346 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

churches themselves are drilled to become systematic 
contributors at stated periods during the year, — 
inferior auxiliaries to all these exterior instrumen- 
talities, — deemed superior to the New Testament 
organization. Standing committees are constituted 
in many churches to solicit of each individual mem- 
ber a contribution for each of them ; and any one who 
refuses, — save those who are compelled to from 
their well-known poverty, — may expect to lose caste 
with brethren and sisters, notwithstanding they may 
be conscientious in declining, believing it their priv- 
ilege as well as their duty to be the almoners of their 
own benefactions, at such times, in such unrevealed 
ways, to such objects or persons — specified or un- 
specified, as they may choose — providentially thrust 
upon their attention with their impressive appeals, as 
if Heaven itself had brought about the junction to 
bless not only him that takes, but him that gives. 

Thus, through this web of influence woven about 
them, instead of being sovereign instrumentalities 
themselves in the world's evangelization under the 
lead of their Master, the churches come to be inferior 
and secondary, tributary and auxiliary to these exter- 
ior ones— offspring of the wisdom of men. 

The denominational " organs " are virtually under 
their control. Such inducements of a pecuniary and 
official character, supplemented with the hope of en- 
larged usefulness, are offered, that ministers having 
talent for management and skill in finance are gener- 
ally employed to officer them. Becoming officially 
Head-Centers, Generals of their order, their espion- 
age necessarily extends everywhere from the "Rooms" 



EACH ONE ACCORDING TO INDIVIDUAL ABILITY. 347 

of their Rome. It is iu their power to interfere seri- 
ously with the weal of any recusant Journal, which 
refuses to become the willing and subservient instru- 
ment of the enterprises they represent. What good 
man will neglect to wield every potency available to 
promote the well-being of a cause he believes to be 
good, and which he has espoused ? Ambitious self- 
seekers, of course, will never fail to do it. The con- 
ductors of these "organs" know very well, that it is 
as much as the life of their enterprises is worth to 
dare to question their scriptural authorization, or the 
wisdom and economy of their measures. There is a 
constant and unremitting effort to link every other 
denominational interest as ligaments for their support; 
above all, as pecuniary ducts to the reservoirs of their 
charities. Funerals of distinguished members, be- 
longing rather to humanity and Christianity than to 
a sect, — to a denomination than to societies, — have 
been manipulated, so as to be made tributary to such 
a result. In a notice by a correspondent of such a 
funeral in a distant Journal, after a specification of 
the pall -bearers, it was added: thus was this, that and 
the other great interest of the denomination repre- 
sented on the occasion ! 

Men don't need any more instrumentalities for 
their evangelization than divine wisdom has provided. 
All that is needed is to embody the New Testament 
Ideal according to the New Testament Eeal; — that 
every member of these churches be filled with the 
Holy Spirit, charged with energy, zeal, wisdom, love, 
that he or she execute with fidelity that which God 
has committed to his or her trust, in the gift of orig- 



348 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

inal endowment, or of subsequent culture, — of prov- 
idential bestowment, or in the solemn juncture of 
opportunity. " To each one according to his individ- 
ual ability!" ExdaTuj xararrjv tdiav dbvafiiv. "Be occu- 
pied in business till I come!" Upayixareuaaff^e tioq 
ep^ojxat. 

The propagation of Christianity, through human 
instrumentality under God, is a simple business as is 
revealed. His grace is sovereign and independent of 
means. But He chooses to employ such means. It 
is not complicated nor needs any complexity. It lies 
through the influence, the light, the example of re- 
newed hearts, of sanctified lives — consistent with the 
profession made. It is in the consecration and faith- 
ful use of all gifts, with whatever a disciple is en- 
dowed; the improvement of every opportunity for 
doing good, — nothing more, nothing less. He has 
given to each child of His, each Christian disciple, 
his peculiar sphere of labor, according to his natural 
and gracious gifts, — his culture and providential cir- 
cumstances. There is a niche to be filled in the up- 
rising Temple of God by every individual gift, how- 
ever humble. There can be none which is not needed 
to complete the divine structure, and to make it sym- 
metrical from the massive foundation to the vanish- 
ing point of spire; whether of prayer, exhortation, 
singing, teaching or writing; whether in legislative 
administrative, agricultural, mechanical, mercantile, 
literary, scientific, artistic or financial skill. Did each 
one know his gift, apprehend his mission, find his 
sphere of activity, and occupy with fidelity, encroach- 
never upon the sphere of any other, there would be 



MISSIONARIES — TRUSTED, NOT TRAMMELED. 349 

as much order, harmony and efficiency in spiritual move- 
ments among men as there is in the material heavens. 
As there would be no necessity for civil governments 
if every individual was self -governed; bo in the king- 
dom of grace would there be need for societies ex- 
ternal to the churches, close corporations for the ex- 
ecution of the Commission ? They may be useful to 
stimulate, combine, concentrate and intensify indi- 
vidual zeal, to induce liberal benefactions to the com- 
mon object of love, — especially, since men naturally 
incline to the use of the huge, the intricate, the compli- 
cate, the pretentious, and the ostentatious in attempt- 
ing to do good — for they strike the imagination, in- 
stead of the simple ways of the Lord as prescribed. 
Men have more faith in the grand or mystic flourish 
of some distinguished prophet's hand over- leprous 
sin, than in the direct and immediate execution of 
the simple prescription of the Almighty Himself: 
"Go wash in Jordan seven times and thou shalt be 
clean." Numbers are magnetic and potent. Indi- 
vidualism — individual action varied as the diversity 
of gifts and spheres of activity, it is believed, is more 
in accordance with the constitution of men and with 
the teachings of Jesus, who imposed personal obliga- 
tions with their inseparable responsibility. He in- 
deed never proscribed union for the prosecution of 
His divine work; nor did He ever prescribe it to the 
supersession of individual freedom. He devolved 
that work on each and every one of His disciples, 
and then sent them out, saying to them as such, 
"freely ye have received, freely give." 
Every Christian, then, has some gift to use, some 



350 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

call to heed. If he is called, as he believes, to the 
heathen, it is his privilege to go with or without the 
consent of others. Their judgments are not the rule 
of his conscience, or of his conduct in the last de- 
cision. " You can best serve God by silence," it was 
reported a D. D. said to the Chicago Moody at the 
outset of his missionary career. The latter chose to 
listen to God's voice in his soul. True: the fact that 
one is not able to secure the approval of his brethren 
of the same church, as to his intellectual, educational 
and spiritual fitness for such mission, should lead him 
to prayerful re-examination and close scrutiny of his 
supposed qualifications and motives. If he goes with 
the approval of the church of which he is a member, 
let it formally commission him, if it will, but let it 
not fetter him by arbitrary restrictions, positive re- 
quirements and prohibitions, otherwise than those 
which Jesus prescribed. He is called to liberty, as 
each and every one of it is called to his. His Master 
is his lawgiver. He in conscience, in grace, through 
the Spirit is a law unto himself. He must trust God 
to guide him. If the formal commission of a Board, 
or a committee in or out of churches, be essential to 
constitute one a missionary — authorized to preach the 
Gospel at home or abroad, let that Board be satisfied, 
first, as to his qualifications before it sends him forth; 
but if satisfied, who has authorized it to trammel him 
in the use of that liberty which his Master gave him 
when he first became His disciple, before the conse- 
crating hands of men were laid upon him? It should 
trust some, at least, to the influence of the Holy 
Spirit, and the promised presence of the Master 



CHURCHES OR SOCIETIES — WHICH? 351 

Himself, conjoined with the providences of God to 
move and guide him wisel}'. If he be a man of God, 
he will give due heed to the suggestions and the ad- 
vice of brethren proportionate to their gifts, exper- 
ience, and knowledge of his circumstances. But who 
has authorized any to fetter his mind, or heart, or 
conscience, or judgment by arbitrary restrictions? 
Would members of these Boards — pastors of church- 
es at home think it just, wise, or expedient to be thus 
fettered by their deacons or elders, or by committees 
afar off, because originally they were sent out into 
the harvest field under their advisement? They — 
churches or their representatives can counsel, can 
pray, can rebuke in brotherly love, when he man- 
ifestly errs or sins, — withdraw their fellowship, can re- 
call him, and withhold funds for his support when 
he is irreclaimable from dangerous error, or from 
immoral life. Thus there is a limit to their respon- 
sibility, and there it ends. 
The missionary must 

"alone determine for himself 



What he himself alone doth understand ! 

Heaven never meant him for that passive thing 
That can be struck, and haminer'd out to suit 
Another's taste and fancy. 

It goes against his nature — he can't do it. 

He is possessed by a commanding spirit, 

And his too is the station of command, 

And Avell for us it is so ! There exist 

Few fit to rule themselves, but few that use 

Their intellects intelligently. — Then 

Well for the whole, if there be found a man 

Who makes himself what nature destined him. 

let it be 



Likewise his privilege to move and act 
In all the correspondencies of greatness. 



352 THE CHItlST IN LIFE. 

The oracle within him, that which lives, 

He must invoke and question — not dead books, 

Not ordinances, not mould-rotted papers." i 

When members of a church are impressed that it 
is their duty to devote themselves to Christian labor 
among the heathen, and they desire to secure in ad- 
vance the approval of their brethren with their 
pledge of material support, — not having confidence 
to go into the field solel}^ on their individual motion, 
and to cast themselves on the providence of God for 
sustenance and preservation, as did the Apostles; 
those who are called to purely secular avocations, and 
have confidence in the character and qualifications of 
the candidate for missionary service, can give directly 
to his maintenance without any intermediate agency; 
the church itself, if it will, can commission and send 
forth, and pledge itself to more or less of a material 
sustenance. Many prospered ones in the churches could 
each support a missionary, send and receive corres- 
pondence, remit their own contributions, or employ 
some trustworthy brother at a financial center to do it 
for them, without any discount for his service. Two 
or three in the same church, two or three churches, 
if necessary, could unite for the support of one mis- 
sionary. Over this bond of union between the mis- 
sionary and his supporters would pass and repass 
the electric fire of love. If the individual supporters 
were willing to honor the instrumentality which Je- 
sus and His Apostles at the first employed, they could 
. give to the church for the special missionary pur- 
pose, as the Lord hrd prospered them; the church 

I. Schiller's Wallenstein. — Coleridge. 



MASS MEETINGS OR FORMAL CONFERENCES. 353 

could consecrate and send forth to the harvest field 
the man of God evidently called to it, and remit the 
support as before; so that the widow who had only 
" two mites," or he who had still less, — nothing pe- 
cuniarily valuable, "only a prayer,'^ could jointly par- 
ticipate; each would stand over against the other, — 
the mites over the larger gift; the prayer over the 
munificent bequest. Curious questioners and am- 
bitious self-seekers could afford to wait until the rev- 
elations of the eternal world, to learn which proved 
the most effectual, — the prayer of a poverty-stricken 
one, the mites of the widow, or the " ten talents " of 
the " good and faithful servant." " Having then gifts, 
differing according to the grace that is given us;" "as 
every man hath received the gift, let him minister the 
same one to another as good steicards of the manifold 
grace of God." Romans xii, I Peter iv. 

But brethren desire to come together from afar to 
see each other in the flesh, to take each other by the 
hand, to sing, pray, and stimulate each other to love 
and good works. Let them come every year or oftener 
and have a Pentecostal season. Let them be simple 
assemblages of brethren, mass meetings of believers 
— delegated or undelegated, — annual or semi-annual, 
for prayer, praise, and exhortation; needing only a 
presiding officer, a secretary, and a treasurer, pro 
tempore. These might take the form of local Asso- 
cir.tions, of State Conventions, of National Confer- 
ences, without any legislation, or assumption of the 
work devolved upon the churches. — Such a meeting 
was that recent one of the National Council of Con- 

23 



354 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

gregationalists in Chicago. It was inspiring, full of 
mighty promise for good in all lands, — a wonderful 
manifestation of the fertile resources, energy and in- 
dustry of that Christian class — historically foremost 
in every good and sound work since the landing on 
Plymouth Rock. It was composed chiefly of clergy- 
men — evidently directed by a few — keen, sagacious, 
and finely trained to such organizing, executive work, 
— men who understood the times and their needs, 
and had an understanding with each other. — Com- 
mittees might be needed to express orally or in writ- 
ing the sentiments or the emotions of the assem- 
blage, — as one might be selected on special seasons 
during the progress of the meetings to offer prayer 
to God on its behalf. If it was not expedient or econ- 
omic, for each individual contributor to remit his of- 
fering to the person or the cause, — object of benefac- 
tion, — or, in the case of foreign missions, to purchase 
and to forward a draft to the distant field of labor, 
which, it is believed, would be far more expedient 
and economic, — more blessed in reflex influence on 
the donor, — bringing the giver and the given-to in 
the closest possible contact; some competent and re- 
liable brother might be entrusted at financial centers, 
thus to remit, and to report therefor directly to each 
individual or church contributor, and not to interme- 
diate societies. When individual Christians were im- 
pressed that it was their duty to go to the heathen, 
and they went forth, sustained by the promises and 
the providences of God, with the co-operating assist- 
ance of their friends who had faith in them, what 
concern would it be of any or of all, —only to bid them 



MISSIONARY FREEDOM ABROAD AS AT HOME. 355 

God-speed, and to help them ? Would not such de- 
velopment of the missionary spirit and action be more 
in accordance with the precepts and practice of Jesus 
and His Apostles? If churches could so trust candi- 
dates for missionary service, as to be induced to set 
them apart, consecrate and officially send them forth, 
they ought to trust them, — the overruling God and 
the guiding Spirit, while they are in the harvest 
field. If the missionaries are men of God, they will 
crave the prayers of their brethren at home, and seek 
their counsel when they feel the need of it. Why 
should they be supervised by a few, thousands of 
miles afar, — ignorant of their circumstances, — with 
temperaments, mental structure, mental and spiritual 
habits diverse from theirs? Why should they be 
compelled to run the evangelizing car in ruts ? Can't 
brethren at home trust God to guide His chosen ones 
whom He has sent forth ? Can't they pray for these 
missionaries, and thus relieve their personal anxieties 
about them ? Can't they write affectionate letters of 
solicitude, of warning, of brotherly counsel and ad- 
monition if need be, — unauthoritative and unofficial, 
except when they have been sent out and are sus- 
tained by churches ? Having done all this, have they 
not reached the limits of their responsibility? Did 
the church in Jerusalem, or that in Antioch, trammel 
Paul and Silas, or Paul and Barnabas, by arbitrary 
directions, restrictive or permissive, as they went 
from place to place ? Did they not commit theApostles, 
their work and the modes of doing it, as became nec- 
essary, to the supervisory, overruling, and directing 
grace of God? Did they not expect and were they 



356 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

not content it should be so, — that the Apostles 
should use the liberty of plan and achievement, to 
which as the children of God and the disciples of 
Jesus they were called? All the instructions they 
received, that are on record, were: " They departed; " 
— "being recommended," literally as has been before 
noted, having been given over^ — "committed" "by 
the brethren unto the grace of God." The language 
is significant, and the example authoritative. When 
the lord of the servants distributed among them his 
talents for use, or the nobleman his pounds, did either 
of them appoint any number of their fellow servants 
to prescribe the modes in which each should use 
them ? Did they not commit to each as individuals, 
and thus intimate, that they would hold them to strict 
personal, individual account for the use of the trust. ^ 
Were not all the declarations and illustrations of Je- 
sus so constructed and directed, as to give the great- 

I. Where ability is equal, quantity determines relative merit; 
and where ability varies, then it is not the absolute quantity of 
work done, but the ratio of the quantity to the ability, that ought 
to detennine value. 

The parable of the Pounds illustrates the proposition that when 
ability is equal, quantity determines relative merit. 

The parable of the Talents, on the other hand, illustrates the 
proposition that when ability varies, then, not the absolute quan- 
tity of work done, but the ratio of the quantity to the ability, 
ought to determine value. 

The parable of the Hours (Laborers in the Vineyard) is to em- 
phasize the supreme importance of motive as a factor in determin- 
ing moral value. It teaches, in effect, that a small quantity of 
work done in a right spirit is of greater value than a great quan- 
tity done in a wrong spirit. — Prof, A. B.Bruce. — Parabolic Teach- 
ing of Christ. 



EVANGELIZATION THROUGH SOCIETIES. 357 

est emphasis and effectiveness possible to this teach- 
ing? Did He purpose to evangelize the ivorld by cor- 
poratiwis? Admitting, as all must admit, that these 
societies during the last half-century have done a 
grand kind and amount of work, — the grandest since 
the Apostles; must it not also be admitted, that it 
has been thus done — much to the cost and to the ab- 
sorption of the individuality of participants? and 
what is more serious and detrimental, to the loss of 
the recognition and education of individual responsi- 
bility? True: Mark represents Jesus, as sending 
forth His disciples at the first in pairs; and the 
Apostles subsequent to His death thus went together; 
still they went forth individuals, though in couples; 
neither was individuality nor personal responsibility 
blended and distinctively lost in the unity of the par- 
ticipated work. Provision was thus made to meet 
their social necessities, that strength, comfort, and 
stimulation might be mutually imparted under the 
inevitable difficulties, dangers, and discouragements 
of the way. 

There being no necessity, as has been urged, let 
Christians no longer come together under the com- 
plication of machinery, — wheels within wheels of an- 
nual and life members, — of boards, executive commit- 
tees and secretaries, — of synods, and presbyteries, and 
judicatories, to fritter away time in the discussion of 
overtures, and deliverances, canons, and endless ques- 
tions of ecclesiastical law; to destroy spirituality, 
weary souls, engender strife, breed Jealousy, stimulate 
unhallowed ambition; more than all, to fatally insu- 
late the assemblages from the reception and perva- 



358 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

sion of the Holy Spirit; but let them on their coming, 
give themselves exclusively to prayer, praise and ex- 
hortation, interspersed with addresses from returned 
missionaries present, or with the reading of communi- 
cations from them on the field, recapitulating the 
work of the grace of God in it. Having had the good 
time; having been refreshed by the presence of the 
Holy Spirit in their individual hearts; having seen 
their brethren in the flesh; having joined hands, 
thanked God, and taken courage; having their faith 
strengthened; what remains for them but to go on 
their way home rejoicing to their respective churches 
and fields of labor; to communicate the good — the di- 
vine impulses they have received; to come upon a 
higher plane in the divine life. If anything more is 
authorized by Scripture and a sanctified common 
sense, let the authority be cited. 

But if it has been effectually and conclusively 
demonstrated by the experience of eighteen centuries, 
that this work cannot be adequately done by church- 
es immediately or mediately, singly or combined, 
through their committees or messengers — most rig- 
idly restricted to do only what they are commissioned 
to do; if their efficient employment is hopeless; then 
it is feared, Christendom has been mistaken in sup- 
posing that they were designed to continue perma- 
nent instrumentalities for the spread of the Gospel 
to the end of time; — that they were merely a tempo- 
rary arrangement for the purpose during the Apost- 
olic era. 

There is only one escape from this conclusion, — as 
IS seen, and as has been before suggested; that 



MISSION MEETINGS OR CONFEBENCES. 359 

is, in enlarging the interpretation of the Christian 
ecclesia, if facts and philology will allow, — to which 
Christian sentiment seems to be drifting, so as to in- 
clude any assembly of Christian believers, near or 
afar, baptized or unbaptized, who have been drawn 
together by the common love of Jesus, and by the af- 
finities of religious belief and of action for the spread 
of the Gospel at home or abroad; and, consequently, 
for their individual development and growth in grace. 
In such a comprehending sense, every Young Men's 
Christian Association would be a Christian church, 
and would be bound by the precepts prescribed for 
its regimen and conduct in ecclesiastical life. It 
might require, on admission, assent to certain ex- 
pressed fundamental principles of belief, or to the 
teachings of Jesus Christ undefined, and to a coven- 
ant — oral for each time, or verbally prescribed; it 
might labor with and discipline unworthy members; 
it might celebrate the memorial Supper as the silent 
sacramentum of allegiance to their Master, By the 
same enlarged apprehension of the New Testament 
Ideal and Real; an Association, a State Convention, 
a National Conference might be a Christian church 
or assembly, — being constituted and regulated by the 
same inspired directions, — reminding themselves 
from time to time of their perpetual obligations to 
their Master by the same memorial observance. Upon 
such an exegesis, all such assemblies might properly 
be held to be Christian churches, and undertake to 
execute the Gospel commission — in sending out mis- 
sionaries from their numbers and in sustaining them; 
but remembering to limit themselves as did the 



360 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

brethren of the church at Antioch with regard to 
Paul and Silas, — " giving them over to the grace of 
God;" then they would be bound in all their proced- 
ures by the principles and prescriptions for the con- 
stitution and regimen of such bodies of Christ, — the 
New Testament ecclesise. Assuredly, then, all such 
distinctions and classifications of life or annual mem- 
bers upon the payment of specified amounts of mon- 
ey; all odious and unscriptural assumptions and se- 
clusions of positions of power and trust; all princi- 
ples and practice of close corporations; all unneces- 
sary Boards, Executive Committees, and Secretary- 
ships; all aristocratic, class, and anti-democratic fea- 
tures would cease to exist and to be employed in the 
Lord's service. The missionary being commended, — 
given over to the grace of God; there would be no 
more for these assemblages to do than to create in- 
terest on his behalf and in his mission ; to raise funds 
for his and its support; to pray for him ever, and to 
send him often as they had opportunity, words of 
cheer. All this would be enough to occupy their 
time and attention, — to develop and absorb their 
Christian zeal and energy. "Ye know that they, 
which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles, lord it 
over them, and their great ones exercise authority 
over them; but it is not so among you; but whosoever 
of you would become great among you shall be your 
servant, and whosoever would be first among you 
shall be your bond servant. For verily the Son of 
Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, 
and to give his life a ransom for many. Mark x : 42- 
45; Lukexvii:25. And this decisive and emphatic 



SOCIETIES TRANSIENT — CHURCHES PERPETUAL. 36l 

utterance of Him — the recognized infallible Teacher 
of all, is deemed elucidatory of, and conclusive upon 
the whole subject. 

Churches, it is said, change, are revolutionized, — die. 
So do individual contributors change and die. On 
what, or on whom can the missionary rely after the 
lapse of years ? 

Whether those are the most enduring, which have 
passed through the conJ&icts of eighteen centuries, 
against which, as fore-declared, the Gates of Hades 
have not prevailed; or those which are changeable as 
is public opinion, and which by the measure of the 
centuries have been transient; — developing in antag- 
onism to the simplicity of the Gospel, and running in 
their seed to corruption, as they always will ; recon- 
structed but to come again unsatisfying and imprac- 
ticable; — never able to retain to their end the confi- 
dence of the people represented. 

"One generation passeth away and another gener- 
ation cometh: but the earth abideth forever." Many 
churches have survived successive dynasties of the 
nations out of whom they were gathered. The line 
of their succession has been unbroken. The children 
of the mother have found a name and place some- 
where in every Christian century. As rivers disap- 
pear sometimes beneath the surface — to re-appear in 
some distant locality, so churches have disappeared 
to be visible again through meandering sons or 
daughters in some section of the earth. Thus it has 
ever been. Societies are of modern origin. They 
have been reconstructed. They have always wasted 
power in the necessary and unavoidable friction; — 



362 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

absorbed funds for tbe divine end in the running 
gear of means. Though the exi3ellent of the sects 
have been prominent in their management and direc- 
tion, they have been commonly officered and wielded 
by men of a past generation, who could not discern 
the signs of the present or of the future; if they did, 
- obstinately refused to profit by the vision, and to 
take a new departure; men who did not keep step 
A\ itli Providence because they were too busy in the 
conservation of machinery; as if the evangelization 
of the world could not be wrought without its pres- 
ervation; men who clung with the tenacity of death 
to their policies and places; till, society having ad- 
vanced — laggard Christendom itself — many a league; 
these professedly pioneers in the world's redemption 
were left behind, forced to their dissolution or recon- 
struction. 

The work on which the Christian embarks is not 
one of calculation,— as men ponder whether they shall 
succeed in this or that material enterprise, though 
judgment as to times and places is to be exercised, — 
cold, material calculation is against all spiritual suc- 
cess; but purely one of faith, with the pledge of all 
the forces and potencies of Omnipotence to guide, 
sustain, and to lead to ultimate triumph to the extent 
of omniscient limitation, not demonstrable on the 
surface, or visible to the naked eye, but as 
God is true, to be realized. It must come at last, and 
to be recognized as wholly one of faith, though 
the undertaking was inaugurated with the acclaim 
and " God-speed " of millions, and pushed on with 
the treasures of earth. 



MISSION WORK,— INDIVIDUAL — OF FAITH. 363 

The missionary work is ecclesiastical, and chiefly 
individual. The missionary, summoned by God in 
his soul and by providences without, must lean upon 
Him and himself alone for strength, wisdom, direc- 
tion, — succor in every perplexity and trial. He can- 
not rely much on men — only as God impels and com- 
missions them to help him. It is certain, that he will 
have assured in advance, the sympathy of the angelic 
host, and of that innumerable company, — "blood- 
washed " who look down upon his career from the 
battlements of Heaven with the deepest interest. 
They will strengthen invisibly but unmistakably. He 
must remember the isolated heroism of predecessors 
of old, — have faith and stamina to stand alone 
when forced to it, — as did they, rather than be recre- 
ant to solemn, majestic, sublime trust. The religion- 
ists of Elijah's time did not come with much alacrity, 
if they came at all to his pecuniary support; nor is it 
believed he sought for it, or cared for it, or would 
have had it on conditions, — of keeping back a part of 
his messages, or of toning them down to suit the av- 
erage sanctification of his hearers. He, it is evident, 
was not very popular or much trusted by the con- 
servative piety of his time — in that dark, desperate 
state of Israel, with Jezebel and Ahab on the throne. 
He would not be a dumb dog, a time server, or a 
conservative. He dared to confront the mightiest as 
the obscurest against God, when commissioned to go to 
them. He was a radical, as all divinely commissioned 
preachers will be. Once his heart failed him. He 
had his hour of weakness and despair, as all men will 
sometimes have, howe'er intrepid. Elijah thought 



364 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

all was lost; that there was no hope for Israel; that 
he only of the unseduced, unterrified remained; that 
courage, fidelity, further constancy were to no pur- 
pose. He was no better than his fathers. He was 
human. He fled, not through cowardice, but through 
despair. When the pot of herbs failed, God fed him 
through ravens; gave him a new vision. All true 
prophets must live and fare very much as did Elijah. 
Sufficient unto the day. — Why should disciples be 
over anxious for the morrow? Can't the missionaries 
and their friends trust God? If not, they cannot, as- 
suredly, be called to such work. If they be His child- 
ren, they will be driven to it at the last. He will take 
away all their props, bring to nought all their confi- 
dences, prove vain all their earthly reliances, and 
swing them out into the eternities of faith to be sup- 
ported. To such extremity every chosen soul will be 
brought at last, whether in the working out of its in- 
dividual rescue, or in that of others through Christ. 

The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose, 

He will not, He will not desert to His foes; 

That soul, though all Hell should endeavor to shake, 

He'll never, — no, never, — no, never forsake! 



ILLUSTRATIVE AND SUGGESTIVE. 



Next to the originator of a good sentence is the first quoter of it. — Emerson. 



Certain social conditions are necessary for our higher intuitions 
to develop themselves, and become fully realized as part of the in- 
ward life of humanity. Just as the tree sends forth its roots to 
gather nourishment from every side, so also when our spiritual 
emotions are once awakened, they seek the aid and support of fel- 
lowship; — they essay to strike their roots deep into the common 
soil of huinanity, and in this way to grow up like some vast tree 
into full and perfect proportions. The religious emotions, indeed, 
beyond all others, exhibit this tendency. Their strength, their 
tenderness, their whole social character is such, that they produce 
the strongest affinities, the most deeply-rooted friendships, the 
most irresistible attractions between minds which stand upon the 
same stage of religious impulse and idea, . . . it is only by 
means of fellowship that the religious emotions and intuitions 
can evolve themselves into a distinct form of religion in the world. 

Consider how far such virtues as specified in Gal. v : 22, could 
be maintained or cultivated except in a state of social life. Christ- 
ianity may, indeed, exist apart from society, viewed as an ab- 
stract system of doctrine and precept, but not as a living concrete 
reality in the human consciousness. Were the Christian ideas 
which are presented in the Bible to exist only in an isolated form 
in the mind of one and another, without the aid of intercourse or 
spiritual sympathy, they would be entirely wanting in that con- 
centration which gives them a moral power, before which the 
spirit of humanity bows in obedience and sacred awe. 

Each one must have its individuality, — and whatever tends to 
crush this at the expense of mere uniformity, will wound the ten- 
derness of pure religious affection, and quench the smoking flax 

(365) 



366 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

ere it ever can burst forth into a flame. — MorelVs Philosophy of 
Religioji. 

We can look, for the realization of our highest social ideal, only 
to the perfecting of individual character under the conditions at 
any time existing. And for the perfecting of individual character 
we must rely upon that increasing sense of divine omnipresence 
and that increasing aspiration after completeness of spiritual life, 
which taken together, constitute the permanent element in Christ- 
ianity. — Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy. — Fiske. 

The form of society toward which we are progressing is one in 
which governjnent will be reduced to the smallest amount possi- 
ble, Siud freedom increased to the greatest amount possible ; one 
in which human nature will have become so moulded by social 
discipline into fitness for the social state, that it will need little ex- 
ternal restraint, but will be self-restrained ; one in which the cit- 
izen will tolerate no interference with his freedom, save that 
which maintains the equal freedom of others; one in which the 
spontaneous co-operation which has developed our industrial sys- 
tem and is now developing it with increased rapidity, will produce 
agencies for the discharge of nearly all social functions, and will 
leave to the primary governmental agency nothing beyond the 
function of maintaining those conditions to free action, which 
make such spontaneous co-operation possible ; one — in which in 
dividual life will thus be pushed to the greatest extent consistent 
with social life ; and in which social life will have no other end 
than to maintain the completed sphere for individual life. 

By continued subdivision, what we call sects will disappear; 
and in place of the artificial uniformity, obtained by stamping 
men after an authorized pattern, there will arise one of nature's 
uniformities — a general similarity, with infinitesimal differences, 
. that condition in which the individuality of each may be 
unfolded without limit save the like individuality of others ; that 
condition toward which, as we have just seen, mankind are pro- 
gressing ; is a condition towards which the whole creation tends. 

All organic development is a change from a state of homoge- 
neity to a state of heterogeneity. 

The multiplication of sects, . . . the preaching that identi- 
ty of opinion should not be the bond of union, — the universal 



THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE SOCIETY. 367 

tendency to separate thus exhibited, is simply one of the ways in 
which a growing assertion of individuality comes out. — Herbert 
Sfenccr. 

Finally, grand consolidations and massings of society will be 
gathering heavier momentum and a more beneficent sway over 
the conduct and life of individuals. Good men wiU then be born 
by nations — a nation in a day. — Dr. Bushnell. 

As society grows stronger, the individual grows weaker; and 
this will continue until at last all human beings merge into one 
dismal uniformity, and the whole of humanity is congealed into a 
hopeless rigidity. . . . Every political and every social change 
furthers this assimilation. . . . Men must every where come 
to resemble each other more closely. . . . The higher life 
will no longer find countenance or support; and the higher minds 
will be cowed and crushed. . . . Every expansion of social 
life finally impoverishes the community by dwarfing the indi- 
vidual. 

The greatest men are the true individuals. . . . They are 
generally educated men, and have a common stock of methods 
and ideas. They are naen of wide and delicate sympathy ; they 
have the gift for entering into the lifes, for interpreting the 
thoughts and actions of other men, and this gift no man can have 
who has not much in common with his kind. They are men 
who understand what their age requires, and how to provide for 
it; they above all other m^, have aims common to one another, 
and common also, although it be unwittingly, to all their contem- 
poraries. 

Individuality generally implies strength, originality, character. 
It also implies peculiarities by which strength, originality and 
character make their presence known. These, men value, not for 
themselves, but as proofs of a sturdy nature. 

He is a man who makes his own life instead of allowing cir- 
cumstances and passion to make it for him. — Limits of Individual 
Liberty. — F. C. Montague. 

What is best in any one cannot be outwardly organized, nor 
mechanized in any way, nor even manipulated to that end by 
himself, without loss ; — his self-communion, his aspiration, his open- 
oess to ideal suggestion ; his personal self-discipline ; his mental 



368 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

freedom; his power of suspending judgment; his hospitality to 
new thoughts and persons ; his conscience not subject to vote or 
director, nor committed to policies and conformities ; his sense of 
the value of his function, and his aim to fulfill it in the best way •, 
in a word, what goes with one wherever he is and whatever he 
does, and makes the constant level of his highest qualities. — 
All these vitalities are unorganizable, etc. — Freedom in Religion. 
— SanCl Johnson. 

The initiation of all wise or noble things comes, and must 
come, from individuals ; generally at first from some one indi- 
vidual. 

. . . the individual's own mode of laying out his existence is 
the best, not because it is the best in itself, but because it is his 
own mode . . . different persons also require different con- 
ditions for their spiritual development; and can no more exist 
healthily in the same moral than all the variety of plants can in 
the same physical atmosphere and climate. The same things, 
which are helps to one person towards the cultivation of his high- 
er nature, are hindrances to another. 

Only through diversity of opinion is there, in the existing 
state of human intellect, a chance of fair play to all sides of the 
truth. . . . Truth would lose something by the silence of dis- 
sentients. 

Unity of opinion, unless resulting from the fullest and freest 
comparison of opposite opinions, is npt desirable, and diversity 
not an evil, but a good, until mankind are much more capable 
than at present of recognizing all sides of the truth. 

If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one 
person were of the contrary opinion, mankind M^ould be no more 
justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the 
power, would be justified in silencing mankind. 

There are two requisites for individuality of power and develop- 
ment, freedom and variety of situations. 

In the human mind, one-sidedness has always been the rule, 
and many-sidedness the exception. Hence, even in revolutions of 
opinion, one part of the truth usually sets, while another rises. 

It is not by wearing down into uniformity all that is individual 
in tliemselves, but by cultivating it and calling it forth, within the 



THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE SOCIETY. 369 

limits imposed by the rights and interests of others, that human 
beings become noble and beautiful objects of contemplation. 

A bureaucracy always tends to become a pedantocracy. — ^. 6". 
Mill. 

Self-assertion is one of the elements of human worth, as well as 
self-denial. — y-'o/i^i Sterling. 

Associations accumulate power in a few hands; . . . a few 
men rule, a few do everything ; . . . a few leaders can send 
their voices and spirit far and wide, and where great funds are ac- 
cumulated, can league a host of instruments, and by menace and 
appeals to interest, can silence opposition. . . . An influence 
is growing up, through widely spread societies, altogether at war 
with the spirit of our institutions, and which, unless jealously 
watched, Avill gradually but surely encroach on freedom of 
thought, of speech, and of the press. 

By an artful multiplication of societies, devoted apparently to 
different objects, but all swayed by the same leaders, and all in- 
tended to bear against a hated party, as cruel a persecution may 
be carried on in a free country as in a despotism. Public opinion 
may be so combined and influenced, and brought to bear on odi- 
ous individuals or opinions, that it Avill be as perilous to think and 
speak with manly freedom, as if an inquisition were open before 
us. . . . They create tyrants as effectually as standing armies. 

The surest way of spreading Christianity is to improve Christ- 
ian communities; and accordingly he who frees this religion 
from corruption, and makes it a inore powerful instrument of vir- 
tue where it is already professed, is the most effectual contributor 
to the great work of its diffusion through the world. 

One good action, springing from our own minds, performed 
from a principle within, performed without the excitement of an 
urging and approving voice from abroad, is worth more than 
hundreds which grow from mechanical imitation, or from the 
heat and impulse which numbers give us. 

The essential condition of intellectual progress is the resist- 
ance of social influences, or of impressions from our fellow beings. 
— Dr. Channing. 

They have usurped the commission and powers of the Christ- 

24 



370 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

ian Church ; they have invented and imposed new rules and terms 
of Christian association ; they have concentrated Christian influ- 
ence, to a great extent, in the narrow circle of a few self-created 
managers ; and in conseqvience of the new principles they have 
adopted, and the new modes of association they have prescribed, 
they have constructed the frame of religious society extensively 
upon a new basis, — upon a basis which constitutes themselves the 
source of law, and of all economical measures. — Protestant Jesuit- 
ism. — Harder Bros. 

" The member of the Society of Jesus was set to watch his com- 
rades, and his comrades are set to watch him. Each must report 
what he observes of the acts and dispositions of the other; and 
this mutual espionage does not end with the novitiate, but ex- 
tends to the close of life. The characteristics of every niember of 
the order are minutely analyzed, and methodically put on record. 
. . . It not only uses its knowledge to thrust into obscurity or 
cast out altogether those whom it discovers to be dull, feeble, or 
unwilling instruments of its purposes, but it assigns to every one 
the task to which his talents or his disposition may best adapt 
him. . . . One great aim engrossed their lives. 'For the 
greater glory of God ' — ad major cm Dei gloriam — -they would act 
or wait, suffer or die, yet all in unquestioning subjection to the 
authority of the superiors, in whom they recognized the agent of 
Divine authority itself." — Jesuits in North America.- — Parkman. 

Out of the spirit of Association there has come, and there comes 
again and again from age to age, a spirit of hati-ed even against 
good itself when that good is the work of any one who "follow- 
eth not us." It is a force, nevertheless, rooted in the nature of 
man, implanted there as a part of its constitution, and like all oth- 
ers of this character, given him for a purpose, and having its own 
legitimate field of operation. Nor is that field a narrow one. It 
is the foundation of much that is noblest in human character, and 
of much that is most heroic in human conduct. — Reign of Law. — 
Argyll. 

In His parables upon the idea of His kingdom "is no intimation 
of a society or of organization." 

The Eucharist, as Jesus founded it, is the most anti-ecclesiasti- 
cal of institutions, pulverizing alike the historic churches in their 



THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE SOCIETY. 371 

beauty and the dissenting sects in their unloveliness;— it is the 
consecration of absolute individualism. — Literature and Dogma. — 
Arnold. 

That, ^vhich Jesus Christ cared for, was to change the inner man 
of each individual, not to establish organizations of any sort. — 
Dunn. — Quoted by Arnold. 

It is indeed worthy of remark, how little the Apostles had to say of 
the machinery now supposed to be so necessary to the conversion 
of sinners. We read nothing of the importance of special efforts 
of this and that kind ; nor indeed do we read much of direct ef- 
forts of any kind, beyond the preaching of the gospel and the 
maintenance of regular worship. But the epistles of Paul and 
and Peter, of James and John, are filled with urgent appeals to 
the church members to lead pure lives, and thus to recommend 
the religion of Christ to Jew and Gentile. The idea seems to be, 
that if this result be once secured, all other desired results would 
surely follow. — Chicago Advance. 

If Jesus came to found a church, never w^ere actions so at vari- 
ance with purposes. There are no recorded instructions to this 
end. He remained in the full communion of the Jewish church 
to the last. Nor did His disciples or Apostles dream of leaving 
the church of their fathers. . . . They attempted to develop 
their new life within the old forms. Little by little, and slowly, 
they learned by experience that new wine could not be kept in old 
bottles. . . . All creeds, churches, institutions, customs, ordi- 
nances, are but steps upon which the Christian plants his foot, 
that they may help him to ascend to the perfect liberty in Christ 
Jesus. — Beecher'^s Life of Christ. 



The letter, alone, never has secured the unity of the church — but 

the unity we so mucli yearn after comes only through the devel- 
opment of the religious life. — Philosophy of Religion. — Morell. 

No man can be in union with his fellow-men absolutely through 
the medium of the understanding, for the understanding itself is 
not alike and of the same constant and absolute quality in all men. 
. . . What men see, they see through the color of the feelirg 
that infuses itself into their thinking faculty. ... If there 
were a hundred men wdth a hundred different gauges of eye, one 
sees things only at the minutest point, and the next man a shade 
larger, and the next man two shades larger, and the other men 
clear up to the hundred, by constant increments. . . There 
are certain mathematical truths about which men cannot disagree , 
they are absolute: but in regard to all moral truths and social 
truths where these feelings must of necessity come in, it is utterly 
impossible that men should absolutely agree. — //. W. Beecher. 

No existing forms or creeds are the best absolutely, but each of 
them is the best relatively ; one form, one creed is the best for 
one class of minds, — another form, — another creed is the best for 
another class of minds. — J. F. Clarke. 

In order that the work of the formation of a single church of 
Christ should become an established fact, every individual Christ- 
ian creed must cast off everj'thing which has been introduced by 
men, and restore that discipline and those rules which rest upon 
the foundation Christ the Lord laid, and which meet the just re- 
quirements of the different nations and of the age. — Old Catholics 
of Germany to Evangelical Alliance. 

The time is perhaps coming, when all our present sects will 
live only in history. But the influences of the gospel will not 
therefore cease; the church will not die with the sects into which 
it is broken. . . . The simple gospel divested of human ad- 
dition, no longer disfigured by absvu-d explanation, will be the 
center and bond of union to the world. The name of Christian 
will absorb all other names.— Z)r. Channing. 



(372) 



CHAPTEK VII. 



THE POSSIBLE IN CHKISTIAN UNITY. 

That they all may be one, even as Thou, Father ! art in Me, 
and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us ; that the world 
may believe that Thou didst send Me. And the glory which Thou 
hast given Me I have given unto them ; that they may be one, 
even as We are One, I in them, and Thou in Me ; that they may 
be perfected into one. — John xvii: 2i-2j. 

Other sheep I have which are not of this fold ; them also inust 
I lead, and they shall hear My voice. And they shall become one 
flock, one shepherd. — yohn x: j6. 

Till we all shall attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the 
knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full grown man, unto the 
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. — E;ph. iv: /j. 

Through all diversity in matter or mind there is 
unity. Through religion, whether revealed in the 
spiritual constitution of men, — in the written Word, — 
the external world, by the Spirit, — general history, — 
daily providences and individual experiences, there 
runs this golden thread of unity. Not that individ- 
uality is or ever will be destroyed, or that diversity 
in individual constitution, education and environ- 
ment will ever cease ; but that there will be unity in 
heart, in will, in the great essentials of belief. The 
declarations and prayers of Jesus, the injunctions of 
the Apostles are a revelation of God's intent and a 
prophecy of its coming realization. 

(373) 



874 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

The differences, dissensions and strifes of Christ- 
ian disciples since the advent of their Master have 
indeed been wide and great. These had their origin 
in part from the diversities specified, but chiefly, it is 
believed, from the selfishness and ambition of the 
sects themselves, or of the individual sectarians who 
led and manipulated them. 

Notwithstanding these variances, as must be ad- 
mitted, there has been a substantial oneness respect- 
ing the nature and attributes of God, His manifesta- 
tion in Jesus, the helplessness of men; the necessity 
of their renovation through God's spirit; the eternal 
existence of the soul ; future accountability; salvation 
through grace upon Godly contrition; a place or 
state of rewards and punishments. 

Indications are now apparent, that Christian sects, 
sundered by the logomachies of nineteen centuries, 
have reached the extreme of theological divergence, 
and have commenced the final swing to unity; — unity 
with diversity it is repeated, for no considerate per- 
son can expect that there ever will be realized among 
Christian believers mathematical or literal unity, — 
complete oneness in faith, belief or practice, senti- 
ment or emotion, where no two of them will be orig- 
inally made or educated alike, or developed under the 
same circumstances or conditions. But what is pos- 
sible and to be expected is, that Christian disciples 
will see eye to eye in the essential elements of 
Christianity, as they more accurately apprehend them, 
especially when the main source of this separation 
and estrangement, — the bane of Christianity and the 
insurmountable barrier to union — selfishness and un- 



THE COMING UNITY POSSIBLE. 375 

sanctified ambition are repressed. Christian sects can 
be as selfish as individual worldlings or society at 
large. They can become more intense, bitter and 
fierce in bigotiy from their proneness to presume, 
that their zeal is born from above. 

It must be discerned that there is a strong advance 
of enlightened Catholicism to a liberalized Protest- 
antism. The revolt of Pere Hyacinthe, Bishop Dol- 
linger and his adherents from the decree of Papal in- 
fallibility and other Poman dogmas, is a protest as 
radical and decisive as that of the father of modern 
Protestantism, though of a milder type, and is one of 
the great signals of the movement of Christendom to 
unity. The Catholic church with all her errors and 
corruption, it must be confessed, is the mother of the 
Western churches, though by mere historical descent, 
— through whom most modern sects have come, and 
some of whose errors and corruptions they to this 
hour retain. It has been orthodox to interpret her, 
and to denounce her^ as the ** Man of Sin," and the 
Anti-Christ of the Scriptures. But it is believed, her 
chief doctrines, — not with respect to the Papacy or 
its assumptions, — the Priesthood and ritual service, 
are essential elements • of Christianity theoretic and 
practical; while there are others, for which no war- 
.rant in the teachings of Jesus and His Apostles can 
be found. Her gross errors in teaching and practice ; 
the excessive stress and reliance placed upon works 
without rectifying, purifying faith in God; the cheap 
absolution thereupon proffered to the sinner; 
the mummery of forms; the millinery of ser- 
vice; the homage to the wafer and the picture; spec- 



876 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

tacular exhibitions to impress the sensuous, and to 
sway the superstitious; the bloody track which her 
devotees have left in history need not be specified 
in this connection, and are all admitted. Still: there 
may yet be a few at least, it is believed there are 
many names among her whose garments have not yet 
been defiled, — enough to partially entitle her to the 
revered name of a Christian church, — though not in 
New Testament order and development; — not alto- 
gether to be branded as a "synagogue of Satan," 
though not exclusively the Christian church, — local 
or universal, idealized and realized in the New Testa- 
ment — the new Jerusalem descending out of Heaven. 
Now: O Protestant of the Protestants! O Puritan of 
the Puritans! clamoring "for the general union of 
total dissent:" ^ if thou art disposed to recalcitrate 
against such charitable admissions' which thou de- 
nouncest loosely liberal; where is that body of Christ- 
ian believers, and what is the name it bears, which 
can justly assume and appropriate exclusively to itself, 
the hallowed name of the Christian church ? 

From the first, it must be admitted, she has taken 
the rude, the ignorant and the superstitious, compos- 
ing the masses of the world, from savageism and deg- 
radation and lifted them up on a higher plane of civ- 
ilization; evangelizing them in a measure externally; 
sometimes, it is feared, she has enervated and en- 
slaved them, as in Ireland; but she may justly be re- 
garded as a Providential instrument for the spiritual 

I. Their belief — a believing in nothing at all. 

Or something of that sort ; I know they all went 
For a general union of total dissent. 

— yas. R. LoxvcU. 



CATHOLICISM AND PROTESTANTISM. 377 

elevation of low grades of men, — preparing them to 
be received and discipled in the school of a higher 
and purer Christianity. The soul, of high or low 
grade, cultured or untaught, must have a religion, a 
God and a service to Him for the satisfying of its as- 
pirations. The mighty in intellect, the potent in po- 
sition, thinkers, scholars, princes who have adhered 
to her, have done so in part from social or political 
considerations, because their soul-wants and aspira- 
tions demanded aliment and some measure of satis- 
faction, and they could not find it elsewhere; and 
since in her communion, accusations from God and 
their consciences might be met more easily by proxy 
in confession. The religious element in every nature 
must have a medium for development, service and 
worship. But these dignitaries of thought, position 
or office have been and are too intelligent and dis- 
cerning to rely exclusively upon her instrumentality 
as means of grace for salvation. Well they must 
have known, that the "spermaceti for an inward 
bruise" — the accusings of a guilty conscience, the 
consciousness of helplessness as individual sinners; 
— the sovereign balm for every wound of their souls 
.was not there, — in the "Holy Catholic Church" — 
Ultra or Intra-montane, or in any body of fallible 
men, but in One alone — able to save to the uttermost. 
As intelligent Catholics come into fuller light, truer 
conceptions of God, see clear*ly that rectification, and 
hence ultimate salvation are by faith in that Saving 
One, not independently in any human merit, — are 
born from above, and bring forth the corresponding 
fruits of the new life; they will graduate from it, 



378 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

slough off tlieir effete ecclesiastical garments, and as- 
sume the new symbols of righteousness, or remain to 
purify the old church as Hyacinthe and Dollinger 
have been doing 

The skeptic must admit that Protestantism with 
all its defects in theory and practice, as an expo- 
nent of Christianity is in advance of Catholicism; 
yet the former in endeavoring to avoid some Cath- 
olic errors, has fallen into their opposites. And some 
of the pioneer sects, instead of sloughing off the 
exuvias of the Papal church they emerged from, re- 
tain to this hour portions of its ecclesiastical vesture, 
— having made little or no progress for three centu- 
ries under the light of the Spirit's revelations upon the 
Word; they stand where they first stood at their birth 
in the Lutheran Reformation; indeed, wings of them 
have retraced their steps, are on the high road back- 
ward, and close to Rome; or are switching off to 
the arid sands of unbelief. Some in the advance 
are rapidly approaching in creed, and much in prac- 
tice to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of 
the Son of God — " unto a fully developed man, unto 
the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ," 
— giving themselves unrestrainedly to the enjoyment 
of the glorious liberty of the children of God. But 
the hallucinations of the intellect must not be mis- 
taken for the voice of God, — the revelations of the 
Spirit in tlieir souls. They are to be tested in some 
court of appeal, — the "law and the testimony" 
without and the Word within, — that which was in- 
tended to be of universal and perpetual authority, not 
the local and temporary interwoven, and there must 



PBEDISPOSITION TO DIFFERING CREEDS. 379 

be penetration and discernment to separate one from 
the other. Among the more advanced of the Protes- 
tant sects, there is doubtless more theoretic ortho- 
doxy, less ecclesiastical heresy with some than with 
others. No one of them can be said to embody all 
Gospel truth, especially in its symmetry; much less, 
has it attained to the purity of ecclesiastical living 
up to its own standard, and still less as individual 
members, to a very high degree of righteous living in 
their church, or in the world. No one of them can 
hold itself up with propriety as a New Testament 
model for all the rest. That must be left for the ob- 
servation and judgment of their scrutinizing, intelli- 
gent, discriminating neighbors. To their own Master, 
they must stand or fall. Each must determine and 
answer for itself. 

There are wide differences in the composition and 
in the administrative life of churches of the same 
faith and order in the same city, — from the circum- 
tances of their origin, the original or succeeding el- 
ements of leavening and of control, the mental or 
educational character of the pastors. Discipline has 
been faithful or lax. That which has been nutriment 
for one class of minds, temperaments, cultivated or 
uncultivated, has been none to others. Those who 
were not edified or supposed they could not be, left 
and sought for edification elsewhere. During a single 
pastorate, the elements both of church and congrega- 
tion have been entirely revolutionized, their relative 
position and control changed. There will be elective 
affinity in believers. Like will run to like. There 
is a radical difference in church administration as 



380 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

well as in church theory. Some churches theologic- 
ally deficient or heterodox, according to the prevail- 
ing standard o£ their denomination may, on the whole, 
approach nearer to the ideal perfection of the Christ- 
ian church in ecclesiastical living, through faithful 
administration, than others adjudged to be more cor- 
rect in literal faith and covenant. There are some 
pastors with constitutional or educational bias towards 
the Calvinistic scheme, others, — to the Arminian. ^ 
Notwithstanding education otherwise, original pre- 
disposition sways. No fact in psychological history 
is more evident. 

It is truthful and proper to say, that some brains 
by original conformation are better adapted for re- 
ceiving, apprehending and appreciating some sides 
or aspects of theological truth, more than others. 
Doubtless, theology has its Calvinistic and Ar- 
minian side. But one class of mind cannot without 

li Men are really born Calvinists or Pelagians, • . • eith- 
er Aristotelians or Platonists, . , • materialistic or spiritual- 
istic, logical or philosophical, argumentative or intuitional, • . 
skeptical or sympathetic and receptive , rigid and narrow or com- 
prehensive, catholic and free, . . . admire the harder sterner 
virtues, or are won by the nobler, gentler, finer qualities of the 
soul, . . . limit themselves to the senses and to the range of 
the understanding and to what can be submitted to its processes 
and decisions, or they love to ascend to the region of the super- 
sensual, and covet intensely the higher revelations of a discip- 
lined faith. The two orders are ever ranged on opposite sides in 
theology, in philosophy and in real life — John Toung. 

I knew a witty physician who found the creed in the biliary 
duct, and used to affirm that if there was disease in the liver, the 
man became a Calvinist, and if that organ was sound, he became 
a Unitarian. — Emerson, 



VARIETIES OF ECCLESIASTICAL DISPENSATION. 381 

doing violence to original predisposition, dispense 
the Ai'minian side of the Truth; nor another, the 
Calvinistic: hence the main source of theological dif- 
ferences and of dissensions, — the many sects perpet- 
uated beyond necessity, as is believed, through the 
selfishness as well as the inherent one-sidedness of 
the sects themselves. 

The churches themselves assimilate to their priest- 
hood, — "like priest, like people." Some magnify and 
lay stress upon denominational peculiarities and re- 
quirements; others are lax in the exposition and 
enforcement of the church-creed. Some are vigilant 
and rigid in the reception of members, others are 
loose and superficial. Some cleave with tenacity to 
the Shibboleth — and traditions of their fathers. Oth- 
ers cut loose from sectarian restraint, — striving to 
keep abreast with the light that is ever and increas- 
ingly blazing upon Biblical truth and human duty — 
out of the revelations of science, of Providence in 
history and of the Spirit in personal experiences. 
They profess to aim to reach the consciences of men, 
to touch their souls, to do them good. They fish for 
men. Some are High Church and Ritualists; others, 
Low Church and Evangelical. There are right and 
left wings in every denomination. Some preachers 
are declaimers and exhorters, — they cannot be any- 
thing else. Others are thinkers and logicians. Some 
denominations and their clergy go to seed in ^ doctri- 
nal rigidity,^ in " earnest contention" for certain dog- 
mas and practices which they assume to be pre-emi- 

I. The O. S. Presbyterian church is dying of rigidity, said one 
of its D. D's, at one of its denominational gatherings. 



382 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

nently, "the faith once delivered to the saints " — their 
interpretations and traditions tacked on. Their God 
is a stone Jupiter, and they themselves are stony- 
hearted to men. Others make philanthrophy, — which 
may or may not have a God and a Savior in it, the sub- 
stance of the Gospel, and of their ecclesiastical life. 
Shall disciples of unlike mental structure, tempera- 
ament, culture, theologic predisposition or prefer- 
ence, spiritual necessity, be forced to receive their 
aliment from their antipodes, because they bear the 
same ecclesiastical name? Nay, verily. Let there be 
liberty. There must be among the children of God — 
disciples of Jesus, freedom to elect or reject. 

There is the same diversity in temperaments, gifts, 
graces, culture, habits, tastes and necessities among 
members of the same church. Some are by nature, 
bold, decisive, incautious, self-confident and reliant. 
Others are timid, careful, shrinking, self -distrusting. 
Churches may have their Peters, Pauls, Johns, 
Thomases, and a Judas. When souls pass through 
the regenerating process, their characters are more 
or less transformed in time; but grace works no 
miracle in the substitution of one temperament or 
predisposition for another; often, natural character- 
istics are wonderfully modified, sometimes intensified, 
frequently kept in duress by discipline and experi- 
ence, — the self-confident becoming diffident, and the 
timid self-reliant. 

The Devil soon discerns the point of weakness in 
the citadel of every soul, and is ready with the requi- 
site appliances for entrance. Many therefrom have 
been brought nigh to ruin, if not to utter desolation. 



THE ENDURANCE OF JOB. 383 

Sinful occasions have proved for the purification and 
fortification of other tried souls. Having become 
fore-conscious through bitter experience of the point 
of weakness in the time of danger, they have been 
led to summon the entire forces of God, and of their 
OAvn being for help in such time of need. Thus as 
Christian warriors they have been specially fortified 
through grace at these joints of weakness. Many a 
Christian, doubtless, has been suffered to tumble 
from such unfortified heights into depths of sin, that 
he might be forewarned and forearmed against a fu- 
ture plunge into ruin. God, it is evident, suffers His 
children to be tried that they may be indurated for 
effectual resistance to evil. Bound it the battle rages 
fiercest and strongest, till the poor soul, if it has but 
once yielded or has been self-reliant, is forced to cry 
out: Lord! save me from the consequences of my 
folly, or I must perish. 

" Ye have heard of the patience of Job,'* — that is, 
his suffering endurance to the end, — not always pa- 
tience. There was, indeed, sublimity in it. It is 
proverbial to all time. The story is doubtless true — 
in dramatic form. The calamities were extraordinary 
and cumulative in a brief period. Job became res- 
tive, insubordinate, insubmissive, — fierce even in his 
complainings at the height of his troubles, — reveal- 
ing in him the infirmity common to all when laid 
bare. It is difficult for a soul with little or much 
faith, — having been favored with a large measure of 
worldly prosperity and with a consciousness of the 
divine favor, to be otherwise than serene. How much 
the manifestation of ordinary faith, even, is contin- 



384 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

gent on sound bodily condition, freedom from anx- 
iety, inward peace flowing like a river, auspicious sur- 
roundings! Many well-to-do worldlings, as well as 
well as heavenlings manifest exuberance of a certain 
species of faith under such circumstances. The Devil 
was right; he knew if he could be allowed scope, op- 
portunity and sway, he could get Job on the hip: 
"Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast thou not 
made an hedge about him, and about his house, and 
about all that he hath on every side? Thou hast 
blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is 
increased in the land!" A soul, we say, with large 
or small measures of grace, under such inspiriting 
conditions, cannot be otherwise than buoyant. Oc- 
casions are always the Devil's opportunities, and he 
will not fail to make the most of them. Who, — what 
believer will not be exuberant in faith, buoyant in 
hope, when all things go well with him? Job began 
well in the reception of the first installment of the 
Devil's calamitous assaults. " The Lord gave, and 
the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of 
the Lord." "What?" said he to his refractory, re- 
cusant spouse, " shall we receive good at the hands of 
God, and shall we not receive evil?" But as his 
troubles cumulated and their billows began to roll 
over him, he staggered, ominously wavered before 
the Devil got through with him. His feet were al- 
most gone. His steps had well nigh slipped. He 
cursed the day of his birth. Then broke into the 
bitterest complainings, remonstrances, and protesta- 
tions. Suffering gave them intensity and amplifica- 
tion. Never was such a tide of passionaiie utterance 



THE UNIIYING POWER OF GRACE. 385 

poured forth. It was human. It was nature. He 
held fast his integrity, yet surely his faith — basis of 
all patience, wavered, w^as almost if not "clean gone" 
for a moment in his extremity. 

"The man Moses was very meek above all the men 
who were upon the face of the earth," by which we 
are to understand that he became such through grace. 
Surely he was not constitutionally the most patient, 
the humblest and the gentlest of men. He shrank 
from going into the presence of Pharaoh at the com- 
mand of Jehovah to organize and to head the Exodus 
of his people. "Who am I?" "O my Lord! I am 
not eloquent. ... I am slow of speech and of a 
slow tongue." At the outset he was presumptuous, 
daring. He slew the Egyptian, — hasty to run before 
sent, and in his disappointment and consciousness of 
inappreciation fled to the land of Midian, where he 
remained many years, till Jehovah summoned him 
decisively to his work. He certainly was by consti- 
tution very choleric — tempestuous in wrath. Grace 
never entirely subdued the inflammatory tendency. 
"His anger waxed hot, and he cast the Tables out of 
his hands and break them beneath the mount," as he 
beheld the idolatry of the children of Israel. 

Jacob, to his maturity, relied on his characteristic 
subtlety, craftiness, policy, shrewdness, management, 
duplicity, selfishness and self-seeking for material 
success. He attained it, but the day of visitation 
came as it comes to all — especially the self-seeker. 
The hour of hours to him this side of death he had 
striven so many years to avert — to escape had come, 

25 



386 THE CHEIST IN LIFE. 

and he had to face it and to bide its results : his many- 
herds and the retinue of wives and children, men-ser- 
vants and maid-servants, passing on before him, sys- 
tematically grouped from the least valuable to the dear- 
est, would be flimsy interposition to the anticipated, 
dreaded alternative. Encounter Esau, his wronged 
brother, he must. There could be no evasion now. 
Stratagem was useless, devices at an end, deception 
vain. It was life or death for him that night. Thus 
it is with every transgressor when he is compelled to 
face his retributive hour. Alas poor soul ! he must 
have known it would prove a feeble barrier; he fled 
from it himself as the shades of night came, — aban- 
doning his herds, servants, wives and childi'en, so 
sagaciously pre-arranged, to the tender mercies of an 
exasperated brother, as God might permit or restrain, 
— rather cowardly, it seems, unless it was purely for 
uninterrupted communion with his God; — he retired 
or fled over the ford Jabbok, where he wrestled all 
night for deliverance and prevailed. Thereafter he 
was a changed man. He turned from self to God. 
O poor Jacob! what would have become of thee and 
of thy calculating, unjustly discriminating mother? 
what would become of the multitude like thee in 
every generation, were it not for regenerating, sancti- 
fying, sovereign grace? Such natures are justly re- 
pulsive to the world, but grace can save even such 
at the last hour. 

David, in certain sanctified elements of will, love, 
magnanimity, — out of such a refractory race, — by 
contrast, for his time and relatively, was a man 
after God's heart. Yet when under the sway of his 



UNIFICATION OP JOHN, PETER AND PAUL. 387 

lower elements, and Satan had possession, his deflec- 
tion from right, goodness, justice was appalling, — 
reeking of Gehenna itself. Dost thou rail at him, as 
if he was totally a confederate of evil, and not in the 
major portion of his life an ally of good? Eead the 
Fifty-first Psalm, and consider what thou art thyself, 
and what most probably thou would' st be, unrestrained 
in thy passions, — given over for a season only to the 
possession of the Devil, at such an age and in such a 
position. Perhaps thou would' st have become a 
bloodthirsty Nero, — with such power place, environ- 
ment. 

John was the "disciple whom," it is said, "Jesus 
loved" — for whom He had a special affinity, for He 
loved all. This fact in conjunction with the peculiar 
structure, ever-pervading tone of his Gospel and 
Epistles, has created the impression that he was by 
nature the most amiable and attractive of men: the 
revolution and transformation wrought by grace 
through the discipline of many years has not been 
considered: the introduction to John is as Jesus left 
him and as grace elaborated him: the fact is over- 
looked, that he was in fact, by nature, a "son of 
thunder" — swayed by ambition and self-seeking as 
was his mother — another Rebekah; that in the no- 
vitiate of discipleship, even, he was ambitious to have 
assigned him a right or left hand place in the antici- 
pated material kingdom of his Master; that even 
then, with his brother, he would have impulsively 
called down fire from Heaven to destroy a village of 
the Samaritans, because they would not receive and 



388 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

hospitably entertain the disciplehood on their way to 
Jerusalem. 

Simon became the steadfast, loyal Peter from the 
impulsive, fitfully self-reliant but unstable son of 
Jonas. Saul, from the furious, uncharitable, straight- 
laced bigot of Tarsus, — "a Pharisee, the son of a 
Pharisee," became the magnanimous, royal-hearted, 
tolerant Paul. But he took with him his natural zeal 
into the kingdom, intensified by grace, but disci- 
plined, attempered, circumvested and pervaded by 
love. 

Thus grace modifies. It transforms, sanctifies, 
stimulates, restrains, symmetrizes, new-directs, exalts. 
Experiences, adversities, trials work conjointly in the 
line of the gracious, sanctifying work. Illustrations 
are abundant in history. Washington was naturally 
self-willed, obstinate, and when roused, tempestuous 
and ungovernable in his wrath. ^ He became self- 
controUed, persistent, patient under exhausting, long- 
protracted tests and exigencies. 

In the recognition of such various idiosyncrasies in 
physical, mental or moral constitution, such diversi- 
ties and inequalities in education, it must be said, 
that though there cannot be expected or realized 
Here a mathematical unity in thought or expression, 
even in regard to a divinely crystallized statement, 
yet believers may approximate measurably to it, and 
in the great essentials may be able to "see eye to 
eye," and certainly be one in apprehension of those 

I. Being interrupted once in his devotions by an importunate 
knocking at his chamber, it is said he arose and thrust his sword 
through the panel of the door. 



NO UNION IN SHIBBOLETH. 389 

"two commands on which hang all the law and the 
prophets;" in recognition of Jesus as the Savior of 
men — the hope of the world; in dependence upon 
the Spirit as supreme in all attempts to edify one's 
self or to evangelize others ; in fellowship with all 
the good on earth and the glorified in Heaven; in all 
the hopes and promises of the Gospel; in prayer and 
praise to Him that sitteth on the throne, and to the 
Lamb forever. There ought to be a present realiza- 
tion of such unity. It ought to be manifested to the 
world. It exists to a greater extent than generally 
supposed. It wants only combination and expression. 
But the Christian sects must take up som« of the 
skandala out of the way, — they are not necessarily 
such, but they are so held and made. If they aspire 
for a closer union in doctrinal expression as well as 
in fellowship of heart and purpose, they must test 
the literal accordance of their creed with the literal 
statements of the Scripture. To the law and the tes- 
timony must they go, — not to traditions or the exe- 
geses of the early or the later Fathers, — not at all to 
human standards, or to the contemporaneous opinions 
and predilections of theii church dignitaries: all, 
for which they cannot find a " Thus saith the Lord," 
— a divine intimation or lawful inference, they must 
unhesitatingly discard. They must reconstruct and 
constantly keep reconstructing, as more light breaks 
in upon God's Word, profiting by the wisdom of 
American citizens in the frequent reconstruction of 
their civil governments. When this reduction, this 
pruning process is faithfully performed, there will be 
little left of their idolized " articles of faith," beyond 



390 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

a very few elementary statements. There will be no 
metaphysical subtleties about the moral ability or in- 
ability of God or men; perhaps, — nothing about 
God's decrees in the presumptuous and dogmatic state- 
ment of them, since it is questionable whether He 
Himself has given any such literal expression or 
enumeration of them. Men should not undertake to 
intrude upon or to supplement the silence of God. 

In such excessive attachment to the frame work of 
a Christian church, and the machinery of its govern- 
ment — with regard to which, little is revealed in the 
New Testament beyond the statement of simple facts, 
is the great obstacle to such unity as is possible of 
realization, not merely in pertinacious adherence to 
either Calvinistic or Arminian shibboleth, or any 
theological subtleties, not Scripturally affirmed. What 
is a church ? What is a Bishop or a Pastor, an El- 
der or a Presbyter ? Are they different names for the 
same office, — often used interchangeably to designate 
the same person according to age or special station ? 
Should local churches delegate to external bodies 
any of their prerogatives and duties ? Have the lat- 
ter Scriptural authority for their organizations ? Is 
each local church independent in its sphere of action 
of every other? What is Baptism? Is it immersion 
or pouring, or sprinkling, or each and all indiffer- 
ently ? What is the etymological meaning of the de- 
fining word? What was the primitive practice illus- 
trative of it? What is its relation to the individual 
believer or to a church? Who are its proper sub- 
jects, — believers exclusively, or unconscious babes 
and unconverted children also? and that by sprink- 



LOVE CONDUCES TO UNITY. 391 

ling on tlie faith substitute o£ their parents ? What 
is the relation of Baptism to the Lord's Supper? Is 
the recipiency of the first precedent and pre-requisite 
for participation in the last? Was its observance in- 
tended to be perpetual, and of binding obligation 
upon every future believer? 

Some find an easy solution of such interrogatories in 
the etymology of the defining or describing words, 
in conjunction with the context and with primitive 
practice. Others do not. Yet there might exist all 
these differences of belief and varieties of ecclesias- 
tical life, — provided they were intelligently and con- 
scientiously held, and did there prevail between 
dissentients the highest unity of love, fellowship, 
prayer and praise. 

No light as yet has come upon the Written Word — 
God inspired, which has relieved zealous Christian 
students of it from literal obedience to those exter- 
nal requirements enjoined upon primitive believers. 
True: sects are in danger of heeding more the shad- 
ow than the substance, the symbol than the reality. 
"Scrupulosity — about laws positive," says F. W. 
Eobertson, "generally slides into laxity about the 
eternal laws of right and wrong." But it might be 
expected, that those scrupulous in the observance of an 
external requirement, would be no less careful to 
obey the moral precept thus illustrated. The history 
of religionists shows the contrary. It has been easier 
to proffer money, anything materially valuable, — the 
service of the body, or " the calves of the lips " — 
Hosea iv: 2, than to give the heart. The first im- 
presses — is more satisfactory to a worldly self-compla- 



392 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

cency ; the latter is not seen of men, — is known only 
to God. 

There is no external act in religious service more 
solemn and impressive; — there could not be, as it 
seems, a more beautiful and significant symbol of 
death and burial to sin, and of resurrection to a new 
life, than the Baptism — the immersion in pure water 
of the body. Who but Jesus could select or recon- 
secrate one so significant? How careful then should 
churches and administrators be in the administration 
to those alone, who evidently have become new cre- 
ations in Christ; that in the selection of the occasion, 
the arrangement of the service, the remarks offered, 
there be no Pharisaic exhibition of denomina- 
tional self-complacency, no eye or end for artistic or 
dramatic effect; that the act be left to speak for itself, 
as speak it will, in the befitting silence for the most 
part of the administrator; and especially without the 
pedagogism of lexical and historical citations at the 
water's side. 

To those substantial and efficient disciples — ear- 
nest contenders for certain elements of the faith once 
delivered to the saints, fruitful in good works, recog- 
nized great powers under their Master in the Chris- 
tianization of the world; — to those who are constrained 
— conscientiously without doubt, to apply water to 
the foreheads of their little ones in conjunction with 
their dedication to God; the inquiry would be pressed 
with as much delicacy as fidelity to the truth will 
allow, whether it would not be promotive of Chris- 
tian unity, and a removal of one of the barriers to the 
same, if they would designate that application by a 



ACTS SHOULD BE ACCURATELY DEFINED. 393 

term etymologically definitive of the act performed, 
or by some other becoming appellative, than to mis- 
apply to it a name selected and consecrated by the 
Master to define a different act — as its etymology and 
all attendant circumstances of its use indicate, and 
that act with respect to believers alone? 

As professedly they do not attach much import- 
ance to Baptism; regarding it merely as a " form," a 
" sign," a " seal," a " sacrament;" and that " a drop of 
water is as good as an ocean," according to their in- 
terpretation and for their purpose ; it is again pressed, 
why can they not, from regard to the tender con- 
sciences, the honest convictions of those who cleave 
to the letter and the practice of the N. T., and for the 
sake of unity they love so well, drop the use of the 
word " I baptize " in the formula as they administer, 
and substitute therefor the word dedicate; "I ded- 
icate ihe^T'' Or, if they must employ a word includ- 
ing a watery application of some sort, take one which 
somewhat definitely expresses the kind of applica- 
tion: I sprinkle, bedew or moisten, or I rantize, 
cheize or pour thee ? Then their dissenting breth- 
ren, though they cannot find any warrant or author- 
ization in the Word of God for such practice to such 
subjects, as have not the great scholars of the world, 
— their own included and conspicuous, would regard 
the application of the immersed digitals of the con- 
secrator to the thus rantized or sprinkled foreheads 
of the dear little ones, as perhaps a harmless act, and 
the dedication of the babes themselves as precious, 
becoming and commendable on the part of the Chris- 
tian parents. In their recognition of parental re- 



394 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

sponsibility and the potency of education; in their 
aspirations and earnest efforts for the early conver- 
sion of their children ; in their vigilance to preserve 
them from the bias and virus of what they deem to 
be error; they are examples to those who are right- 
eously scrupulous to execute positive commands ac- 
cording to the letter, but may not be as vigilant, perhaps, 
in attention to the eternal moral precept, and as well, 
a positive injunction forever.^ 

To that comprehensive class of "Liberals" — so 
styled, many of them pillars of orthodoxy, — in 
clear, radical and sound thinking, — embracing many 
wise men after the flesh, many mighty, many noble 
of the earth, trying to keep the ten commandments 
unaided for the remainder of their lives, if with the 
rest of the sects, they have not been able to do so 
"from their youth up;" — who, to the credit of their 
original or Christianly acquired magnanimity, in as- 
serted freedom from bigotry, — from sectarian or per- 
sonal bias, are willing to unite with all who are in a 
church or out of it, — ready even " for a general union 
of total dissent," let it be said: 

— There is no saving efficacy or salvation in mere 
union external or internal. 

— A union on a lullaby of sailing thereafter on a 
smooth sea, and that all will be well in the end, is, as 

I. If I go to those who believe in immersion and say: "Do 
jou really think, that it makes any difference, when one is bap- 
tized, whether he goes under the water or is sprinkled?" they say : 
"It makes no difference so far as the mere effect on the individual 
is concerned ; but if Christ said go under the water, the obedience 
or ^Z5(95e^2ewce makes a great deal of difference." Well: I cannot 
get away from that. They have got me there. — H. W. Beecher. 



" LIBERAL " LULLABY, " ALL*S WELL "—NOT SAFE. 395 

is believed, an enchantment, — a fearful snare and de- 
lusion. 

— Trust in its dulcet tones whicli dull the sense of 
guilt, lull a troubled conscience to sleep, and drown 
the voice of God in the soul is perilous. 

— All is not, and will not be well to any one with- 
out previous realization of helplessness, and of de- 
pendence on the Omnipotent One alone to save. 

— God is not exclusively or partially the sentimental 
Being, the unstable and unreliant One, that men are, 
under the frenzy of their pitying and sympathetic 
emotions. 

— He indeed pities, and to the infinite. 

— But justice is the inflexible attribute of His na- 
ture, the basis of His character, — of His paternal 
dealings. The goodness of God is but the obverse of 
His severity. Many, most men are *' persuaded " by 
His " terror " when they will not be by His love. 

— Retributive consequences cannot be stayed. Can 
they ever cease to travel somewhere, to affect some 
one, or some thing? 

f — Pity is not the last, determining arbiter of the 
destiny of the transgressor. There must be an end 
to her intermediation, to her beseeching tones, earn- 
est advocacy, in some juncture, at some crisis, on some 
occasion, — Here or There ! 

— Justice in administration, to the sinning, unre- 
penting, unreconciled, is condemnation, — " the other 
half of crime," the "undying worm," and "the un- 
quenchable fire " of penalty, which may be nought else 
than simple consequence inseparable from ante- 
cedence. 



396 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

— There must be an end of dispensation, — of this 
eon, when right will be triumphant and the truth 
prevail. What will become of wrong doers and fal- 
sifiers of the truth? The memory of the just shall 
be blessed, but the name of the wicked shall rot. 

— If they would be content to pass on in their 
" liberal " way of endeavoring to make themselves ac- 
ceptable to God, and to secure the heavenly inheritance, 
not suffering themselves to be perturbed, should their 
so-called orthodox brethren excel them in external 
zeal and missionary activity, though not perhaps in 
"esthetic " "culture" and Christian doing for the ne- 
cessitous immediately around them and not afar off, and 
if they are not recognized by them as being in good 
standing on their evangelical platform, — it would be 
well. God is their judge, not their fallible brothers of 
other faith. The declaration of Jesus comes thundering 
adown the centuries to them, as to all the sects: 
"Yerily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be 
horn again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." 

Were it not for the courage and the independence 
of a few clear-headed and sharp pioneers of thought 
in every generation, there would be no progress in 
theological or other science. Men would be in bond- 
age to the belief of their ancestors or predecessors, — 
to their present shibboleths. 

Discussions, deviations, enlargements, modifica- 
tions, supplements, restatements, reconstructions are 
not only discouraged, but condemned — deemed pre- 
sumptuous, if not blasphemous by the Pharisees of 
every time, are exposed to the anathema maranatha 
of the plagues pronounced upon those who add to or 



FROM NON-CONFORMITY TO UNITY. 397 

subtract "from the words of this book" — that is, 
their interpretation of it. He who will ever assert 
and maintain his right to think for himself, — keep 
himself free while in sectarian bonds, — with mind 
uplifted and heart open ever to the light that may 
break in upon them, may expect to lose caste, forfeit 
standing in his sect. He must be content to wait 
until he has gone for apprehension and appreci- 
ation, if it ever comes this side of the heavenly ad- 
justment. No ostracism is bitterer than the ecclesi- 
astical or the social. The excommunication of the 
Jews or of the Papal church, the exclusions of the 
Hindoo castes have been terrible enough; but the 
ecclesiastical taboo of Protestant sects has been no 
less bitter, — to upright, conscientious, sensitive souls 
— bitter as death itself. How much must Wickliffe 
and Tyndale, the host of the earlier and later reform- 
ers and non-conformists, — Luther and Bunyan — their 
contemporaries or successors have suffered! 

Each age will have its religious recusants and 
non-conformists, who become so, not merely from 
constitutional refractoriness, but from enlightened 
judgments and consciences, — men who are discerning 
and intelligent beyond their time, and upon whom, 
therefore, will be placed the ecclesiastical and social 
ban of the sects, with which from principle, predilec- 
tion, affinity or choice they have affiliated. Each 
succeeding generation will build and garnish the 
sepulchers of the good men whom their ecclesiastical 
predecessors stoned or crucified. Let a clergyman 
or a prominent layman of any denomination at the 
present day dissent from the concreted shibboleth of 



398 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

the sect, or even from its fossilized and obsolete phra- 
seology; deviate at all from its exegesis or limitatioD; 
undertake to give it expansion or fresh application; 
to slough off any effete features — secretly believed in 
many hearts to be unscriptural as well as antagonis- 
tic to a sanctified reason and common sense; let them 
even be independent in thought or action beyond the 
" received version " of the denominational faith or 
polity; let them refuse to be yoked into the usurpa- 
tion of external instrumentalities over the churches; 
and they will be lively and mercilessly stoned 
in the modern way by the Pharisees of the sect, pelt- 
ed vigorously by the editorial slings of the official 
scribes. Unsanctified stoning by malicious misrep- 
resentation and abuse it will be characteristically, 
rather than the cannonade of scripture and logic. 
Stones have always been the weaponry of bigots. 
Frequently a stiletto will gleam through an editorial 
paragraph. Heroes in thought and expression are 
passing off the stage every day, who were once com- 
pelled to pass through the gantlet of the Pharisaic 
stoning of those, who, if they still linger on the earth, 
thrust themselves in as chief mourners at their 
funerals. 

John Robinson left a precious legacy to those as- 
piring for Christian union, for a closer fellowship 
among believers, in the familiar, oft-repeated utter- 
ances, two and a half centuries since, — ever to be re- 
curred to with profit: "If God reveal anything to 
you by any other instrument of His, be as ready to 
receive it, as ever you were to receive any truth by 
my ministry, for I am verily persuaded, am very con- 



MOliE LIGHT COMING ON GOD'S WORD. 399 

fidentf that the Lord has more truth yet to break 
forth out of His holy Word." 

Said old John Cotton of Boston: "For a church 
to prescribe its profession of faith to their posterity — 
to be a form and pattern unto others, sad experience 
hath shown what a snare it hath been. Therefore, 
if a church finds that it has incorporated into its * Ar- 
ticles of Eaith ' some dogma not warranted by the 
Scriptures, it is not only the right but the duty of 
that church to amend the objectionable formula. In 
my serious judgment, those who set up in the church 
any form of words which are not the very words of 
inspiration, as a form that shall never be changed, 
are responsible for setting up an idol in the house of 
God — especially if that form is prescribed as the in- 
flexible form in which every candidate for Christian 
fellowship must make profession of his personal 
faith." 

Though some of the sects may have more ecclesias- 
tical truth in them than others, and each one has 
something valuable, perhaps Scriptural which anoth- 
er has not, there cannot be with propriety any boast- 
ting, any self-gratulation, any confident vaticination 
therefor. Such exhibition is offensive to the Chris- 
tian spirit. The celebration of centenary periods of 
existence is profitable for review and stimulus, pro- 
vided the expression takes shape in the tone of these 
declarations: " What hath God wrought!" "Hith- 
erto hath He helped us." " We thank Thee, and will 
take courage." "Not unto us, but unto Thee, O 
Lord! be all the glory." "Make all one that love 
Thee." "Work through all Thy people for the speedy 



400 THE CHEIST IN LIFE. 

evangelization of the world." — Otherwise it is sectarian 

folly. 

If the principal evangelical sects desire a larger 
unity in the Christian family, they must call a halt 
in their methods of evangelization. What is their 
common procedure? When a new field, Home or 
Foreign opens, forthwith each representative Mission 
society dispatches to it an agent or a laborer, — if to 
the Foreign, with funds for the erection of buildings, 
the translation of the Bible into the native tongue, 
when one, — the joint product of the best scholars in 
all the denominations on the field would be suffi- 
cient.^ In a new town or village of the Home field, 
even if there are not over a thousand persons in it, 
each sect hastens to be represented in it by a mis- 
sion or a church. Thereupon, all the families therein 
are scoured by collectors for contributions towards the 
erection of a chapel or a meeting house, and for oth- 
er auxiliary appliances. Then succeed periodically 

I. No less than nineteen [there are twenty-two] varieties of 
Christianity are at present trying to convert the Japanese. The 
nineteen do not agree as to what the ministry is, nor as to the 
Word, some including the Apocrypha, and others discarding it al- 
together ; and many differing as to the Scriptures. Nor are they 
agreed as to the Sacraments. — So too, on doctrine, discipline and 
worship. There are all sorts of contradictions of belief. Now : 
if Christians with eighteen centuries of accumulated tradition 
cannot agree, how can we expect the heathen to solve the great 
riddle.^ — Rev. Dr. Ho;pkins^ a High Churchman. — Rioted by H. 
TV. Beecher. 

There are in England ninety-nine different persuasions exclu- 
sive of twelve kinds of Baptists, and thirteen kinds of Wesleyan 
Methodists, making in all 124 sects, supporting among them all 
20,000 places of worship, churches and chapels. 



UNITY IN HOME AND FOREIGN WORK. 401 

various printed circulars for kindred purposes. If 
regular services are maintained on each Sunday, the 
church-going population is divided into squads, and 
every Christian believer is expected to attend those 
which represent his sectarian belief, whether the min- 
isterial deliverances meet his intellectual or spiritual 
necessities or not. Indulgence of liberty in attendance 
elsewhere is not expected, and if taken, is at the peril 
of being branded as recreant to the principles of the 
sect with which he has affiliated. Of course, if dis- 
ciples of the Christ were shut up to this method of 
evangelization, there might be no question as to their 
duty. But are they? Is it necessary that there should 
be so many representative Missionary Societies or 
Boards, so many sectarian places of worship? If there 
must be, for instance, separate departments of Home 
and Foreign labor in the evangelical denominations 
of these United States — though the work is one and 
the same, why cannot all these Societies and Boards 
be combined into one or two? Then, a host of super- 
numerary officials might be relieved and relegated to 
other individual work to which they might be called, 
— in their own or more destitute regions, and a vast 
amount of money be saved for the combined and uni- 
ted work, and Heathendom as well as nominal Chris- 
tendom be spared the humiliating spectacle and the 
perplexity of witnessing a number of evangelical de- 
nominations scurrying for the primary occupation 
of a field, and for the propagation of their peculiar 
tenets — relating chiefly to externals, — important of 
course in their place and order, while the great doc- 
26 



402 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

trines of grace and salvation through Jesus the 
Christ are made secondary and subsidiary, and are 
o'ershadowed. 

On the opening of a new Home field, why cannot 
Christian believers in it, — or if not able pecuniarily, 
why cannot believers abroad unite with them in 
building one substantial meeting-house, adequate for 
present and prospective congregations in the near 
future, and make provision that ministers representa- 
tive of each denomination may successively occupy 
its pulpit each Lord's day; and thus the varied spir- 
itual wants and necessities of the community be re- 
spectively met? Then, Christian believers in it would 
not be divided and segregated into small squads, and 
not be burdened with debt for chapels; then, they 
would not be compelled, periodically, to make pecuniary 
appeals to their own congregations, to others, and to 
the community at large for help in cancelling the 
debts incurred, in paying ministerial salaries, in meet- 
ing the current expenses of their enterprises. 

But it is replied, that distinguishing tenets are held 
to be, by those embracing them, important if not es- 
sential elements of faith required to be " earnestly 
contended" for, as well as any other teaching inclu- 
sive of the Scriptural doctrines of grace and salvation. 
Would there not be thus aifforded ampler opportuni- 
ties for the advocacy and ''earnest contention" on 
behalf of such tenets, before larger audiences, — for it 
is to be presumed, the hearers would not be confined 
on the allotted Sundays to those families who hold 
or are favorably disposed to them? 



ILLUSTRATIVE AND SUGGESTIVE. 



Next to the originator of a good sentence is the first quoter of it. — Emerson. 



The letter can never serve as a standard for the spirit of Chris- 
tianity — the two are altogether incommensurable — the letter alone 
in fact, never has secured the unity of the church — -but the unity 
we so much yearn after comes only through the development of 
the religious life . . .the spirit of Truth interpreted by Di- 
vine aid, and perceived through the awakened religious conscious- 
ness of true believers is the real and essential revelation. — Morell. 

The heretics in civilization, not to speak of theology have done 
most for the world. 

The only teacher who can expect to preside over a united 
school is Euclid, but even Euclid would soon find, that if there 
were two methods of drawing a straight line, his school would be 
broken up into two parties. — F. W. Robertson. 

For the improver of natural knowledge, skepticism is the high- 
est of duties, blind faith the one unpardonable sin. 

The mental power, which will be of most importance in your 
daily life, will be the power of seeing things as they are without 
regard to authority, and of drawing accurate conclusions from 
particular facts. 

No educational system can have a claim to permanence, unless 
it recognizes the truth that education has two great ends to which 
every thing else must be subordinated. The one of these is to in- 
crease knowledge ; the other is to develop the love of right and 
the hatred of wrong. — Huxley. 

In the case of any person whose judgment is really deserving 
of confidence, how has it become so.? Because he has kept his 
mind open to criticism of his opinions and conduct. 

The steady habit of correcting and completing his own opin- 

(403) 



404 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

ion by collating it with those of others, so far from causing doubt 
and hesitation in carrying it into practice, is the only stable foun- 
dation for a just reliance on it.. — Mill on Liberty. 

He, in whom the love of truth predominates, will keep himself 
aloof from all moorings and afloat. — Emerson. 

Catholicism will soon be scarred and seamed by great schisms; 
the days of Avignon, of the Anti-Popes, of the Clementists and the 
Urban ites are about to return. The Catholic church will see 
another sixteenth century, and yet, notwithstanding its divisions, 
it will remain the Catholic church. It is not probable, that for a 
hundred years to come, the relative proportions of Protestants, 
Catholics and Jews will be materially varied. But a great change 
will be accomplished, or at least, people will become sensible of 
it. Every one of these religious families will have two classes of 
adherents ; the one believing simply and absolutely after the man- 
ner of the middle ages, the other sacrificing the letter of the law 
and maintaining its spirit. In every communion, this latter great 
class will increase ; and as the spirit draws together quite as much 
as the letter separate, the spiritually-minded of each faith will be 
brought nearer. 

Catholicism, with the majority of those who go back to it, 
is not so much the collection of credences vast in extent and in- 
finite in detail that fills the volumes of a theological treatise, as it 
is religion in its general sense. AmOng the neophytes who at- 
tach themselves to it most zealously, there are few who seriously 
think of the dogmas they embrace ; when these dogmas are ex- 
plained to them literally, they reject them, or fritter them away 
by agreeable interpretations ; nearly all are heretics without sus- 
pecting it. They are brought back to the church by the eternal 
instinct which leads man to attach himself to a religious creed — 
instinct so imperious, that, rather than rest in doubt, he accepts 
blindly the faith that he finds ready made. 

Ah! we must be careful how we think that God has left that 
old church forever. She will renew her youth like the eagle; she 
will flourish again like the palm ; but the fire must purify her ; 
her earthly supports must be broken ; she must repent of having 
trusted too much in the flesh. — Renan. — The Future of Religion. 

A consistent Roman Catholic is a man " who has had the back- 



THE POSSIBLE IN CHBISTIAN UNITY. 405 

bone of his conscience broken, and to break the backbone of the 
conscience is to break the backbone of faith." — Bampton Lec- 
tures^ i8yg. 

You shall hear from some politic supporter of religious estab- 
lishments : " Between ourselves, these churches and parsons and 
all the rest of it are not for sensible men, svich as jou and I ; we 
know better ; we can do without all that ; but there must be some- 
thing of the kind to keep the people in order. — Herbert Spencer. 

For there is a true church wherever one hand meets another 
helpfully, and that is the only holy or mother church, which ever 
was, or ever will be. — Rushin. 

The Unitarian faith offers no battle to worldlings, flings down 
no challenge to music, art, literature, the drama, engages in no 
deadly conflict with formalism, ritualism or ceremonialism ; has 
in fact, no well defined foe; it does not toil to save men from 
hell, for it believes in no hell of flame and everlasting torment; it 
does not toil to get men into heaven, for it believes in no such 
heaven as men can be " got into." The salvation of souls is hardly 
its object, for it does not put the issue between salvation and dam- 
nation with sufficient sharpness to engage the consecration of the 
will. The social improvement and elevation of men is not its 
object, for it has no working philosophy of social life. There are 
ideas enough in it, but it lives in ideas, and like the giant Antaeus 
languishes there. 

Some say the Radical belief is but a heap of denials, and no 
faith can live on denials It has no Trinity, no Incarnation, no 
Redeemer, no Vicarous atonement, no Day of Judgment, no Per- 
dition, no Salvation for believers, etc., etc. — O. B. Frotliingham. 

The creed of one who has large reflective but small perceptive 
faculties will be very different from one who has large perceptive 
but small reflective faculties. A dry thinker has no social emotions, 
and no artistic feeling. The truth he sees is truth as bare as gran- 
ite. — No flower in it, and no color in it; — pure, high, dry specu- 
lative truth. That seems to him sweet and beautiful, — conforms 
to his organization. His next neighbor is poetically endowed; 
and no truth seems beautiful to him that has not leaves and flow- 
ers. Color which comes from feelings is to him an essential part 
of the statement of the truth itself. — Reasoners and factualists, 



406 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

dreamers, seers, sharp analysts, men looking up and around, 
perceiving the minutest objects — cannot be brought to the same 
form of statement, the same symbolism. 

. . . A man of poetic sentiment, can scarcely be got into the 
Arminian church, as represented by the Methodists, nor into the 
Calvinistic church, as represented by the Presbyterians. If he be 
full of tender associations and sweet seeings, he will incline 
toward the Episcopal church. If the element of veneration be 
added, he says, " I want to worship, I do not feel any great need 
of thinking, I do not care for your heavy sermons when you 
preach the doctrine of government : my soul is hungry. I want 
gentle, sweet, beauteous influences." And the moment the organ 
sounds, and the priests come in wearing their vestments, he is im- 
pressed by the harmony and order and symmefa-y which prevail. 
A thousand covert, glancing ideas are. brought to him, which just 
touch that which is in him ; and he says : " That is divine. Now 
I have found rest. This is beautiful." It is beautiful to him. 
Why not let him have it.? 

The attempt to bring the glowing and fervid Orientals, the 
staid and practical Occidentals, the mediaeval minds, the artist 
minds, the sombre and unirradiating natures, and the light and 
gay natures, all to one statement of speculative truth, is as wild 
and preposterous as the boy's race after the rainbow. It cannot 
be done. 

Churches come together by elective affinity ; and each has hid- 
den in its bosom some great element that perhaps none of the 
others have. 

Sects are candlesticks, and a man or woman that is big enough 
to be good for anything is too large for any sect. 

A creed is a good thing to teach a congregation by, and to cat- 
echise children by. It is good to lay down general points of be- 
lief round which a congregation may gather. But a creed is not 
a whip of scorpion by which we are to lash each other's backs. 

Ministers make themselves ecclesiastical engineers, and are so 
busy running the machinery of the church, that they have no 
leisure left for anything else. 

I believe the time will come, when the liberty and catholicity of 
all sects will be such that men will not be talking about abolish- 



THE POSSIBLE IN CHRISTIAN UNITY. 407 

ing denominations and sects. The idea is an absurdity. They 
never will be abolished. But the time will come, I believe, when 
a man will feel at home in them all, and when Christianity will 
be open and free to all alike. Then you will have Christian 
union. — H. W. Bcecher. 

. . . the development of differences must precede their rec- 
onciliation. Variety must precede harmony, analysis must pre- 
pare the way for synthesis, opposition must go before union. — 
yas. I^. Clarke. 

However stringent and pronounced may be the form in which 
one's traditional faith may have been expressed, it is certain that 
temperament, gradually, with irresistible power modifies one's 
creed. — Old Totvn Folks. 

Like coalesces in this world with unlike. The strong and the 
weak, the contemplative and the active bind themselves together. 
They are necessary for each other. — F. W. Robertson. 

We are all of us traditioners in a degree much greater than we 
think. What we suppose to be from Scripture is really, as a gen- 
eral rule, from the catechism, or the schoolmaster, or the preacher, 
or the school of thought in immediate contact with which we have 
been brought up. — Gladstone on Ecce Homo. 

The strong lines of character which marked men on earth, one 
may suppose, will distinguish them hereafter. Paul will retain 
his ardor, John his kindness, Isaiah his imagination, . . there 
will be different degrees of the same excellence and different em- 
ployments corresponding to the character. . . . We shall be 
the same beings as on earth ; we shall retain our present faculties, 
our present affections, our love of knowledge, love of beauty, love 
of action, love of approbation, our sympathy, gratitude, and pleas- 
ure in success. 

I imagine, that our present religious organizations will silently 
melt away, and that hierarchies will be found no more necessary 
for religion than for literature, science, medicine, law, or the el- 
egant and useful arts. — Dr. Channing. 

. . . in the sense of that living belief which regulates con- 
duct, they believe these doctrines just up to the point, to which it 
is usual to act upon them. The doctrines in their integrity are 
serviceable to pelt adversaries with. — Mill. — Liberty. 



408 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

'* I will not loathe sects, persuasions, systems, though I cannot 
abide in them one moment, for I see that by most men they are 
still needed." — Margaret Fuller. — Memoirs. 

" Truth is the property of no creed, but belongs in varying pro- 
portion to all Christian churches." — Pere Hyacinthe. 

Wisdom, justice, self-denial, nobleness, purity, high-minded- 
ness, — these are the qualities before which the free-born races of 
Europe have been contented to bow; and in no order of men 
were such qualities to be found as they were found six hundred 
years ago in the clergy of the Catholic church. — Froude.-— Times 
of Erasmus and Luther. 

The highest unity is to be reached only through the full devel- 
opment and reconciliaton of the deepest and widest antagonism. — 
Hegel according to Caird. 

Nor is it all incredible, that a book, which has been so long in 
the possession of mankind, should contain many truths as yet un- 
discovered. For, all the same phenomena, and the same facul- 
ties of investigation, from which such great discoveries in natural 
knowledge have been made in the present and last age, were 
equally in the possession of mankind, several thousand years be- 
fore. And possibly, it might be intended, that events, as they 
come to pass, should open and ascertain the meanirig of several 
parts of Scripture. 

It is highly necessary that -we remind ourselves, how great 
presumption it is, to make light of any institutions of divine ap- 
pointment; that our obligations to obey all God's commands 
whatever are absolute and indispensable ; and that commands 
merely positive, admitted to be from him, lay us under a moral 
obligation to obey them ; — an obligation moral in the strictest and 
most proper sense. . . . Positive institutions are manifestly 
necessary to keep and propagate religion amongst mankind. — 
Butler^s Analogy. 

If the work of this world's conversion cannot unite the 
body of Christ, what can do this ? . . . Can that be Chris- 
tian union, which vanishes the moment there is something to do? 
—Prof, A. Phelps,— Bib. Sac. July, 1834. 



So long as the male was looked upon as the only type of God, 
and the masculine virtues as the only glory of His character, so^ 
long was the truth yet unrevealed. ... It was not manhood, 
but humanity that was made divine in Him. In all noble charac- 
ters you find divine manliness, divine womanliness blended. — F. 
W. Robertson. 

It is not enough to shout in women's conventions for women's 
rights. There are things that women will find to do at home be- 
fore they come to these questions of suffrage — though these are 
in their place important. There are virtues, there are rights, and 
there are duties, that lie fundamental to the prosperity of the 
household, and so take hold of a woman's very life, and to which 
women's attention should be called. — H. W. Beecher. 

In all this talk about the rights of men, and the rights of wo- 
men, and the rights of children, the world seems to be forgetting 
what is quite as important, the duties of men and women and 
children. — Harriet Beecher Stovje. — The Chimney Corner. 
And woman is not undeveloped man. 
But diverse. Could we make her as the man. 
Sweet love were slain. His dearest bond is this : 
Not like in like, but like in difference ; 
Yet in long years liker shall they grow, 
The man be more of woman, she of man ; 
He gain in SAveetness, and in moral height. 
Nor lose the wrestling thews that throw the world ; 
She mental breadth, nor fail in childward care. 
Nor lose the childlike in the larger mind, 
Till at the last she set herself to man 
Like perfect music unto noble words; 
And so these tAvain, upon the skirts of time. 
Sit side by side, full-summed in all their powers. 
Dispensing harvest, sowing the To Be. 
Then comes the statelier Eden back to men. 
Then springs the crowning race of human kind. 



(409) 



CHAPTEE YIII. 



THE MINISTEY OF WOMEN. 

For ye are all the sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ. 
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free ; 
there is neither male nor female ; for ye are all one in Christ 
Jesus. — Galatians Hi: 26-28. 

The head of the woman is the man ; . . . but the woman is 
the glory of the man. — / Cor. xi: ^-y. 

What are the rights, duties and responsibilities of 
women? What participation shall they have in secu- 
lar and religious affairs ? What shall be their relative 
position when humanity shall be Christianized? 
These are questions that society and Christian 
churches must confront and determine. 

Though woman has been regarded and treated as 
inferior by man in his savage and semi-civilized state, 
her relative equality to him in soulhood is recognized 
in the teachings and practice of Jesus and His Apos- 
tles. Did ever human being manifest more consider- 
ation for her than did the Lord Jesus Christ? What 
if, in his letters to Timothy, the Galatians and the 
Corinthians, Paul undertook to limit and restrain 
local abuses on the part of the other sex? The en- 
nobling specification of various women by their 
names, with those of brethren who labored much 

(410) 



THE RELATIVE EQUALITY OF WOMEN. 411 

with him in the Gospel, cannot, be forgotten.* Be- 
lievers individually and as bodies, in the past, have 
been narrow and unjust in restricting rights, duties 
and privileges of women in society and in ecclesiasti- 
cal life. But from the brotherhood the unhallowed 
leaven is being purged. 

Experience confirms what reason affirms, and what 
cannot be shown the Bible denies, that women are 
the relative equals of men in soulhood; that in union 
of masculinity and femininity each is a complement 
of the other; not that rights, duties, responsibilities 
are equal in that they are the same, but that they are 
equivalent in relation and sphere of action. 

Man's organism surpasses woman's in qualification 
and adaptation for material achievement. But wo- 
men excel men in quickness and keenness of percep- 
tion, in delicacy and refinement, moral and domestic 
sway. 

Her rapid mind decides, while his debates ; 
She feels the truth that he but calculates. 

Because, according to the Scripture narrative, wheth- 
er it be literal or figurative extraction, — a fact or a 

I. Some of the feminine names which appear in the New Testa- 
ment are : Anna, Apphia, Chloe, Claudia, Damaris, Dorcas, Elisa- 
beth, Eunice, Euodia, Joanna, Julia, Lois, Ljdia, Martha, Mary 
of Bethanj, Marj of Magdala, Mary of Nazareth, Mary of Rome, 
Mary the Mother of Mark, Mary the wife of Cleopas, Persis, 
Phoebe, Priscilla, Rhoda, Salome, Susanna, Syntyche, Tryphaena, 
Tryphosa, etc. " There were many women on whom the Lord 
bestowed signal favors, but whose names have not come down to 
us ; — Peter's mother-in-law, the widow of Nain, the daughter of 
Jairus, the woman with the issue of blood, the Canaanite mother 
and daughter, the woman with the eighteen years' infirmity. 



412 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

symbol as to body or soul, or both in conjunction, — 
implying at the utmost but the priority of man's cre- 
ation; her inferiority is not assured therefrom, no 
more than, for the same reason, the physical or men- 
tal inferiority of Abraham to Terah is assured, or 
that of Daniel Webster to his father. Descent 
does not necessarily involve inferiority. Adam named 
her at first woman, "because she was taken out of 
him," — afterwards Eve, " because she was the mother 
of all living." But male and female God created 
them, and He called their (joint) name Adam, in the 
day when they were created. Gen. v : 2. 

Superiority in physical or mental organization can- 
not be predicated from priority of being or headship 
of race. The material basis of woman's structure, as 
declared, having been "taken from man," of which "He 
made" her, — distinctively, independently, as He 
made man, may indicate a certain dependence on him, 
as his subsequent descent from her declares the ne- 
cessity of her being and her indispensableness to 
him. Since the practical reason, — the combined judg- 
ments of men, is not allowed to decisively settle this 
question with Bible religionists, the appeal is to 
what can be indicated from the facts or declarations 
of that Book. The principal resort is to the state- 
ments of Paul. 

Though it be admitted that all Scripture — the rec- 

There are the many anonymous women who tried, in one way or 
another, to serve the Lord Jesus; the woman-evangelist of Jacob's 
well, the penitent adorer in Simon's house, the widow with her 
two mites, Pilate's wife, the wailing women on their way to Cal- 
vary, the praying women of the upper chamber." 



MASCULINITY AND FEMININITY IN THE CHRIST. 413 

ognized Canon, God-inspired, is substantially author- 
itative — that is, the truth embodied, — by no means 
interpolated and transcribed errors; it is not admitted, 
that every declaration was intended to be universal 
in its application and in obligation, and not some- 
times exclusively local and temporary. Doubtless, 
the thought or the sentiment revealed was, sometimes, 
only one of the many sides of truth — toned more or 
less by the idiosyncracy, the mental or moral habits, 
and the limitations of the medium through which it 
came. The statement of truth through Paul, Peter, 
James and John was as varied as the natures through 
which it passed. 

There was femininity as well as masculinity in the 
manifestation of God in His Christ. They twain 
were in complete proportion and adjustment for union 
in Him. In all that He said or did, there is no af- 
firmation or implication of woman's inferiority to 
man. He assumed her relative equality, as in fact 
do all large-minded and large-hearted men. To 
Him, the home of Mary and Martha was specially 
attractive. It was the feminine, — the complement of 
the masculine, which men in all ages had ignored and 
striven to depress in humanity, — it was the feminine 
in man or woman, conspicuous in the disciple whom 
Jesus loved, — not the mere female sex, for which He 
had afi&liation, as if He would thus significantly re- 
mind men of their previous sad neglect and gross in- 
justice, and thus concretely enforce the theory of all 
His teachings, that the love-element is to sway the 
world. God Himself is love. ' 

It is apparent, also, that the judgments of the apos- 



414 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

tolic writers respecting the practices and customs of 
society where they went, though they were God-in- 
spired, were more or less swayed and toned by the 
bias of constitution. Paul, against natural desire, 
and the general duty of marriage, chose celibacy. 
Who will affirm, that his declarations respecting 
woman's sphere in a church, or her general duties 
in the family or in the world were not limited or 
modified by this fact? Besides: his Epistles were 
primarily specific and intended for local application. 
Universal truth in them was universal in application, 
as is true of all writings. A certain measure of in- 
spiration is imparted to each man, though not the 
same measure, nor an equal to the same one, at dif- 
ferent periods. The manifestation of the Spirit is 
given to each man to profit withal. 1 Cor. xii:7. 
Paul in one instance distinctly stated, that the judg- 
ment he gave was by permission, — as the mere expres- 
sion of his fallible opinion. 

Headship in the family, — the prerogative of the 
husband and the father, is not based on mental super- 
iority, but on domestic, social, political necessity, as 
well as on divine statement and requirement. Where 
there will be conflict of opinion, — and there must be 
unity in action, — to some one must be the ultimate 
appeal and final decision, taking with it, of course, 
the consequent responsibility. Rights and duties be- 
tween men and women are reciprocal — to be mutually 
respected. Women, in common with men, when they 
have secured their own rights, are not free from the 
temptation to usurp the prerogatives and rights of 
the other sex. When they suffer themselves to be thus 



HEADSHIP NOT BASED ON MENTAL SUPERIORITY. 415 

possessed, they unsex and discrown themselves of the 
tiara of "glory" in their sphere, with which the 
Apostle adorned them. The illustration is not re- 
fined, perhaps coarse, but it seems pat: — when two 
persons undertake to ride a horse, one must ride be- 
hind. It is so, — exterior to the family, in every circle. 
The righteous and the wise husband and father will 
not come to the assertion of his prerogative, except in 
the last extremity, and after the conference and the 
counsel with the wife and mother. But there are ex- 
ceptions even to this general rule, when the incapacity 
of the natural "head" for his position is very mani- 
fest, and the superior capacity and wisdom of the 
" glory " are equally apparent. All resistance of the 
inferior to the superior sway of the superior in mind, 
morals and culture, — even of the masculine to the 
feminine under such conditions is futile. But in 
that sway there must be no controlling conceit and 
self-seeking, and it must proceed upon a righteous 
basis. The Chief Justice is superior in position to 
his Associates on the Bench, to the Advocate at the 
Bar, or to a Juryman in the Box; but he maybe alto- 
gether inferior to them in original endowment or cul- 
ture. Very often is the wife intellectually superior 
to the husband, but unless the natural and ordained 
"head" is manifestly incompetent to reach and to 
wield a last and right decision, the wise woman and 
wife will choose not to assert or usurp his prerog- 
ative. He must bear his own burden. She can not 
do it for him, but she may aid him in coming to the 
assertion of his prerogative, and to the assumption 
of his responsibility, by her cjounsels. She may guide 



416 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

him to it by wise and righteous tact. She may brace 
him in the continuance of its exercise by stimulus. 
She can always have enough of such participation in 
it, more perhaps than she may desire, — more than 
she needs. Who should desire power with its respon- 
sibility? only those upon whom God devolves it, and 
then, not for its own sake. 

The great Apostle, whose deliverances respecting 
the practices of certain women in the church at Co- 
rinth and elsewhere have been ever cited in justifica- 
tion of the repression of women's gifts, liberty and 
privileges in the churches, declared in the Epistle to 
the Galatians: "For ye are all the sons of God, 
through faith in Christ Jesus. There is neither Jew 
nor Greek, neither bond nor free, no male and fe- 
male, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. Gal. iii: 26- 
28. It would seem, that there could be no logical ev- 
olution of intolerance and repression out of such dec- 
larations, indeed nothing but freedom and relative 
equality. He indeed declared in another epistle, that 
"man is the head of the woman." But he also declares, 
that "woman is the glory of the man." Whether it 
is superior to be a "head " or to be a " glory?" But 
by grace in Christ Jesus, they are " one." Those who 
cite I Cor. xiv: 34, as authority for the repression or 
limitation of the gifts in the sisterhood, should rec- 
oncile their exegesis with the propriety of such par- 
ticipation recognized in the 5th and 13th verses of 
the 11th chapter of the same epistle. One passage is 
as authoritative as that of the other. They will be 
more clearly apprehended hereafter, as those, once 
perplexing respecting slavery, are now. Time and 



MAN THE "HEAD," WOMAN THE "GLORY." 417 

Providence are often the best exegetes. " Experience 
is a very good expositor of the Word in many cases." ^ 
It is evident, that inspired teachings cannot be con- 
tradictory. They are so made by those who inter- 
pret them — as forbidding the sisterhood in these ripe 
Christian days, from a common participation with the 
brotherhood in the privileges and duties of church 
life. In a true union, where one would be the exact 
complement of the other, — possessing physiologically 
or mentally that which the other lacked, there would 
be a complete realization of soulhood. Each is su- 
perior in some characteristics. The " head " excels 
in physical energy, the " glory " in refinement and 
delicacy. One is the sturdy oak, the other is the inter- 
twining vine. Man grasps at great external enter- 
prises. Woman sways in the home, — in every social 
province where the heart, — not the intellect, emotion, 
— not logic, is supreme. He grapples more success- 
fully with problems in mental, moral or physical 
science, — can abide longer in application for their so- 
lution. He will reason ploddingly, consecutively, 
patiently to conclusion. She will fly to it, — reaching 
it with one bound, — hence it is not always sound or 
righteous. She surpasses in quickness of perception, 
in sensibility, tact, fortitude, troth, constancy. 

More human, more divine than we, — 
In truth, half human, half divine 
Is woman. 

Man is " head " in the family, woman is its " glory." 
But a family is not a church. There is no male and 
female " in the body of Christ." " All are the sons 

27 I. Oliver Cromwell. 



418 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

of God by faith in Christ Jesus," — " all are one." The 
distinctions of sex are not recognized in the spiritual 
kingdom. "All ye are brethren." Jesus alone is 
" Head " of it. In the family are husband, wife, par- 
ents and children, none of them may be " brethren " 
of the spiritual household. In a church they all are 
the sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus — brethren 
to each other 

In what estimation the Son of God held woman 
may be discerned from the attention He ever gave 
her. Mention is made in Luke viii of " many " whom 
He allowed to attend Him, and to minister to Him of 
their substance. The world will never forget the 
story of the fallen one — brought to Him by the sinis- 
ter ostensibly for judgment — condemnation, knowing 
well His merciful proclivity, — that they might entrap 
Him; — nor the remarkable colloquy held by Him with 
the lapsed but simple-hearted one at the well of Sa- 
maria; — his attachment to the sisters of Lazarus; — 
nor the first manifestation of Himself after the res- 
urrection to the Magdalene. 

Those, who stumble at a single declaration of Paul, 
must not forget his special mention of devoted • wom- 
en in commendation of their Christian graces, and of 
their abundant labors : — I beseech thee, also, true yoke- 
fellow, help these women, for they labored with me 
in the Gospel, said he. Phil. iv:3. Can it be be- 
lieved, the magnanimous apostle would have excluded 
such from a common participation with him in the 
privileges of church life, when he allowed them to 
labor externally with him in the Gospel, and re- 
joiced in their fellowship with him in this work? 



THE DECLARATIONS OF PAUL. 419 

Never! Believe it, Jew or Gentile, who can. His 
Epistle to the Romans closes with a munificent cluster 
of salutations to his brethren beloved, who labored 
with him in the Lord, very tender in the enunci- 
ation and in the enumeration, one-third of which are 
addressed to women, special mention being made of 
Phoebe — servant (deaconess) of the church at Cen- 
chrea, " a succorer of many, and of myself also;" and 
of others "who labor in the Lord," and who "labored 
much in the Lord," ending with the statement, orig- 
inally or subsequently subjoined, that Phoebe herself 
was the bearer of this message to the Christianhood at 
Rome. God had fore-declared: " I will pour out my 
spirit upon all Plesh, and your sons and daughters 
shall prophesy." Philip, — one of the seven, into 
whose house Luke and Paul entered and abode, had 
four daughters who prophesied or discoursed — gave 
religious instruction. Acts xxi : 9. 

Surely, the hyper-Scriptural have but a narrow 
text and a slender exegesis upon which to base their 
denial to women of the exercise and the sway of their 
natural gifts in the churches or out of them; — no place 
to stand, afforded by natural reason. As to the world 
without, selfishness is ever dominant in some form of 
manifestation. Might makes right with it. Man is 
stronger in mere physical or mental energy, and has 
possession of all the main positions in society. For the 
most part, he has been ordained to them by his nature 
and special adaptation. He will not relinquish to any 
feminine — superior in certain original endowments or 
educational qualifications, without such a contest as the 
ins always make against the attempted incoming of 



420 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

the outs. This is one of the great conflicts of the fu- 
ture, upon which humanity is just entering. 

It has been said: no crime in the past ages was 
ever perpetrated which did not seek refuge and cov- 
ert in Scripture, — was not even shielded there — at least 
for a season, by its professional expounders and cus- 
todians, — the learned Scribes and the influential Doc- 
tors of denominations. Such a remark was frequently 
made in connection with the toleration and defence 
of American slavery before the Eebellion. Whether 
the accusation is wholly just or not; it is true, that 
the temple of God in His Word or His people, has 
been made by such expounders a sanctuary of last re- 
sort for crime and error, because there only could 
they be effectually shielded from the hot pursuit of 
the world's Avenger, — the outraged sentiment of 
mankind. When its custodians are so indiscreet as 
to grant only a temporary refuge for such an outlaw, 
it will not be long ere its sacred precincts will be in- 
vaded, and he be slain through clinging to the very 
horns of the altar. Then, it will be sacred to multi- 
tudes no more. Let be said what may be upon the 
inability of reason alone, sanctified or unsanctified, to 
guide aright the bewildered understanding; it is evi- 
dent that the sentiment of the world, in long stretches 
of time, upon any practice, and especially its exegesis 
of any related Scripture, is nearer being univocal 
with the voice of God, and a better expositor of His 
Word, than that of the Scribes of any sect, who are 
fallible, certainly limited and one-sided in their in- 
tellectual and educational endowments; and who may 



SWAY OF THE LOVE-ELEMENT IN THE FUTURE. 421 

be serfs to their pride of exegesis, constitutional or 
sectarian bias. 

The various Christian denominations must prop- 
erly recognize the rights and duties of women in or 
out of them, or they will be discarded as leaders in 
the world's civil and religious progress, — be found in 
the rear of all reformatory movements. 

All political, social or Christian development must 
be one-sided, unsymmetrical, which has not been 
evolved through the leaven of woman's influence, as 
well as maji's. The love-element is to sway in the 
regenerating and edifying forces of the future. That 
prevails in woman and in large-hearted, great-hearted 
men, especially of all the spiritually successful and 
the useful. He, who aspires to do much or anything 
for the Christianization of others, must strive to educe 
this divinest of attributes found in all — in richer or 
leaner measures. God is love, and that love descend- 
ing out of Heaven into human hearts is to lift them 
up to Himself. He who has the most of it will be 
most like Him, and be most successful in his Chris- 
tian mission. 



ILLUSTRATIVE AND SUGGESTIVE. 



Next to the originator of a good sentence is the first quoter of it. — Emerson. 



The law of nature assigns to man the forces, to women the 
graces ; to man the strength, to woman the beauty ; to man ambi- 
tion, to woman modesty ; to man distrust, to woman faith ; to man 
philosophy, to woman religion ; to man government, to woman 
devotion ; to man the State, to woman the Church ; this division 
implies no absolute but only a quasi inferiority in either. . . . 
Woman is man's superior in grace, beauty, modesty, faith, religion 
and sacrifice. . . . Grace rules force, beauty prevails over 
strength, modesty with its silken reins guides the course of am- 
bition, faith prevails over distrust, religion over philosophy, and 
the Church rules the State the world over, by a power finer, subt- 
ler and less visible, but not less actual or powerful than the mas- 
culine virtues rule the feminine. . . . Masculinity carries in 
the distribution of sex the governmental function. . . . All 
government belongs to men. Not that women are never set in 
kingly positions. . . . The question of expenditure as related 
to income, the question of residence, occupation, emigration, 
where, of course, every effort should be made to compose differ- 
ences of feeling and judgment, must be settled by agreement. 
But if a case arises where agreement is impossible, one of the two 
clearly must decide, and it must be the man. The woman's law 
of allegiance, sometimes a hard one, requires of her to adhere to 
the man, submit herself to his fortunes and go down with him 
bravely when his day of disaster comes. The sway, the determin- 
ing mastership must be so far with him, and it cannot be any- 
where else without some very deplorable consequences to his 
manhood. If he has no sway-force in him equal to this, no au- 
thority of will and council that enables him to hold the reins, he 

(423) 



THE MINISTRY OF WOMEN. 423 

is no longer what nature means when she makes a man. — Dr. 
Bushnell. 

In active courage women are inferior to men. In the courage 
of endurance they are commonly their superiors ; but their passive 
courage is not so much fortitude which bears and defies, as resig- 
nation which bears and bends. In the ethics of intellect they are 
decidedly inferior. . . . Women very rarely love truth, though 
they love passionately what they call the truth, or opinions they 
have received from others, and hate vehemently those who differ 
from them. They are little capable of impartiality or of doubt ; 
their thinking is chiefly a mode of feeling: though very generous 
in their acts, they are rarely generous in their opinions, and their 
leaning is naturally to the side of restriction. They persuade 
rather than convince, and value belief rather as a source of conso- 
lation than as a faithful expression of the reality of things. They 
are less capable than men of perceiving qualifying circumstances, 
of admitting the existence of elements of good in systems to which 
they are opposed, of distinguishing the personal character of an 
opponent from the opinions he maintains. Men lean most to jus- 
tice and women to mercy. . . . Men excel in energy, self- 
reliance, perseverance and magnanimity; women in humility, 
gentleness, modesty and endurance. — Lecky. — Hist, of European 
Morals. 

Each has what the other has not ; each completes the other, and 
is completed by the other; they are in nothing alike, and the hap- 
piness and perfection of both depends on each asking and receiv- 
ing from the other what the other can give.—Rusktft. 

I maintain equivalency in the fullest sense. I admit no differ- 
ence in the worth of native endowments and capacities, and if I 
admit any difference as to the extent of influence, of the amount 
of good work done in the world, it must be on the side of women 
certainly. But I believe that women cannot learn and do equally 
well with man all the things that he learns and does, and that 
man cannot learn and do equally well with women all the things 
that she learns and does. His is the wider, hers the richer field. 
His is the strength of reasoning, hers the quicker intuition and 
and clearer insight; his the more easy mastery of abstract scien- 
ces, hers the far finer seeing nature, the keener sense of beauty in 



424 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

art and in literature, and the larger capacity of culture in all that 
pertains to the beauty, charm, ornament and joy of home society. 
— Dr. Peabody. 

The Influence in society exerted by a lady of true refinement 
and delicacy of character, it is difficult to analyze or explain. It 
lies not so much in beauty or elegance of person, in vigor, orig- 
inality, or brilliancy of thought. All these are valuable, and con- 
tribute to the result. Nor is it merely the power of moral w^orth. 
This is essential, and without it there is no satisfactory result. 
But add to this a delicate sense of proprieties, a quickness of per- 
ception to adjust herself to others, to occupy the place that falls 
to her with dignity and ease, and you have a civilizing force not 
easily estimated. Her power will not lie in the new ideas she sets 
forth, nor in the vigorous enforcement of her views. — There is 
power in the graceful goodness which beams from her counte- 
nance, in the beauty and harmony of her action and her life. 
Evil will fly before her as darkness yields to light, and truth and 
good will spring up in her pathway. — Prof. Fairchild. 

The natural arrangement is a division of powers between the 
two ; each being absolute in the executive branch of their own de- 
partment, and any change of system and principle of requiring 
the consent of both. 

We have had the morality of submission, and the morality of 
chivalry and generosity ; the time is now come for the morality of 
justice. . . . The true virtue of human beings is fitness to 
live together as equals: claiming nothing for themselves, but 
what they as freely concede to every one else. 

. . . this, and this only is the ideal of marriage, . . . 
the case of two persons of cultivated faculties, identical in opin- 
ions and purposes, between whom there exists that best kind of 
equality, similarity of powers and capacities with reciprocal su- 
periority in them — so that each can enjoy the luxury of looking 
up to the other, and can have alternately the pleasure of leading 
and being led in the path of development. — Mill. — Subjection of 
Women. 

The tendency of the masculine interest is toward inquiry ; that 
of the feminine intellect is toward receptiveness. The one is more 
logical, the other more emotional. — W. R. Greg. 



THE MINISTRY OF WOMEN. 425 

She was not taken from common earth, but from a part of man ; — 
" not," as Matthew Henry says, " out of his head to top him, nor 
out of his side to be equal with him, but under Iiis arm to be pro- 
tected, and near his heart to be beloved." — Dr. Hopkins. 

Marriage between a perfect man and a perfect woman would 
be mutual surrender and mutual sacrifice ... as woman has 
less force than man, less force of muscle, less force of mind, has 
more fineness of body, superior fineness of intellect, has em- 
inence of conscience, eminence of affection, eminence of the re- 
ligious power, eminence of the soul ; as she is inferior to man in 
his lower elements and superior in his higher, so she has been 
prosfrated before him. Her right of nature has been trodden under 
foot by his might of nature. This degradation ofwoman is obvious 
in all forms of religion ; it is terribly apparent in the Christian 
church. — Theo. Parker. 

Equality of rights between the sexes has in all past stages of pro- 
gress been simply impracticable. As the flower can be only the last 
product of the plant, so just relations of the sexes can be only the last 
term of ages of human culture. Those peculiar gifts, which may 
have always more or less compensated for her physical depend- 
ence, require for their fair manifestation, a more refined social at- 
mosphere than has been breathed in any period of the past. 

Japan has established the rights of women, even instituting 
monogamy by law, and providing books of instruction in the re- 
lation of wife and mother not inferior to anything of the kind in 
the West — Johnson. — Oriental Religio7is. 

The truth is in the air, and the most impressionable brain will 
announce it first, but all will announce it a few moments later ; 
so women, as most susceptible, are the best index of the com- 
ing hour. So the great man, that is, the man most imbued with 
the spirit of the time, is the impressionable man, — of a fibre ir- 
ritable, and delicate, like iodine to light. He feels the infin- 
itesimal attractions. His mind is righter than others, because 
he yields to a current so feeble as can be felt only by a needle del- 
icately poised. — Emerson. 

Methinks a thoughtful, high-minded woman would scarcely 
feel degraded by a lot which assimilates her to the divinest man : 
" He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister." I have 



426 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

always conceived that you had learned to count that ministry the 
sublimest life which the world has seen, and its humiliation and 
subjection precisely the features which were most divine. . . . 
A noble woman laying on herself the duties of her sex, while fit 
for higher things. — the world has nothing to show more like the 
Son of Man than that. . . . 

His heart had in it the blessed qualities of both sexes. 
Our humanity is a whole made up of two opposite poles of char- 
acter, — the manly and the feminine. In the character of Christ 
neither was found exclusively, but both in perfect balance. He 
was the Son of Man — the human Being — perfect Man. There 
was in Him the woman heart as well as the manly brain, — all that 
was most manly and all that was most womanly. . . 

I think Mariolotry was inevitable. . . . Until, therefore, 
the great Truth that in Christ is neither male nor female — that 
His was the double nature, all that was most manly and all that 
was most womanly, — could take hold of men, it was inevitable, 
that Christianity should seem imperfect without immaculate 
woman. — F. W~ Robertson. 

Men are astonished at our instincts. They do not see where 
we get our knowledge ; and while they tramp on in their clumsy 
way, we wheel and fly and dart hither and thither, and seize with 
ready eye all the weak points, like Saladin in the desert. It is 
quite another thing, when we come to write, and without sug- 
gestion from another mind, to declare the positive amount of 
thought that is in us. Because we seem to know all, they think 
we can tell all ; and finding we tell so little, lose faith in their first 
opinion of us, which not the less was true. 

The woman in me kneels and weeps in tender rapture ; the man 
in me rushes forth, but only to be baffled. Yet the time will come, 
when, from the union of this tragic king and queen, shall be born 
a radiant sovereign self. — Memoirs of Margaret Fuller. 

Plato says somewhere, that the only perfect human thinker and 
philosopher who will ever arise will be the Man-Woman, or a 
human being who unites perfectly the nature of the two sexes. 

Each weakness is made strong by some corresponding strength 
in the other, for the truest union is where each soul has precisely 
the faculty which the other needs. 



THE MINISTRY OF WOMEN. 427 

There are some men who have a faculty of making themselves 
the confidants of women ; perhaps because they have a certain 
amount of the feminine element in their own composition. 

A man never sees a subject thoroughly, until he sees what a 
woman will think of it. — Old Tcnvn Folks. 

Her voice was ever soft, 
Gentle, and low; an excellent thing in woman. 

— King Lear. 

For men at most differ as Heaven and Earth, 
But women, best and worst, as Heaven and Hell. 

— Tennyson. 

Miss Wisk's mission was to show the world, that woman's mis- 
sion was man's mission ; and that the only genuine mission of 
both men and women was to be always moving declaratory res- 
olutions about things in general at public meetings. 

Miss Wisk inforrned us with great indignation, . . . that 
the idea of woman's mission being chiefly in the narrow sphere of 
Home was an outrageous slander on the part of her Tyrant, Man, 
. . . the only practical thing for the world was the emancipa- 
tion of Woman from the thraldom of her Tyrant, Man. — Bleak 
House. 

If, in the providence of God, women are called to preach ; if 
they show that they are fitted for the work ; if mankind are called 
to hear them ; if their discourse is accompanied with power from 
on high; if men v/ho are in darkness are enlightened ; if men who 
are living in torpidity are inspired with a new desire for a holier 
life; then the Holy Ghost bears witness to the validity of the or- 
dination and of woman's right to speak. — T. K. Beecher. 

But the apostle meant well enough ! Corinth, with all its Greek 
polish, was a loose place. Men kept their hats on in meeting, and 
got drunk at the Lord's Supper ; while women took off their bon- 
nets, and let down their hair. Paul acted as police. The ab- 
surdity is, on the ground of verbal inspiration, to make his text an 
everlasting canon, when the reasons are so shallow. — Radical 
Problems. 

Let us hope in a coming day, not Egeria, but Mary, the mother 
of Jesus, the archetype of the Christian motherhood, shall be felt 
through all the laws and institutions of society. That Mary, who 



428 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

kept all things and pondered them in her heart — the silent poet, 
the prophetess, the one confidential friend of Jesus, sweet and re- 
tired as evening dew, yet strong to go forth with Christ against 
the cruel and vulgar mob, and to stand unfainting by the cross 
where He suffered ! — Mrs. H. B. Stowe. 

In the economy of grace there is neither male nor female ; and 
Peter says, that the Spirit of the Lord shall be poured out and 
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. . . . Accord- 
ingly, there have been in the church, in all ages, holy women who 
have received the Spirit and been called to a ministration in the 
things of God, — such as Deborah, Huldah, and Anna the proph- 
etess. In our own days, most uncommon manifestations of di- 
vine grace have been given to holy women. — Dr. Hopkins in 
Minister'' s Wooing. 

There is a beautiful incident in the ministry of Dr. John M. 
Mason. Rachel Ferguson, a colored women, advanced in years, 
well known in the community as a woman of exemplary piety, 
had long been a member of the church in Murray Street, New 
York, and had been accustomed to take her place at the com- 
munion table in a retired spot, scarcely observed by the great 
body of communicants. At an early observance of this commun- 
ion, and after the prayer of consecration, the Doctor rose from his 
seat at the head of the table, and with a solemn and dignified 
mien, walked the whole length of the broad aisle, down to the 
seat of Rachel Ferguson. All eyes were fixed upon him when he 
took Rachel by the hand, and led her up to a seat occupied by the 
more wealthy of the church, and, as he led her through the aisle, 
solemnly and tenderly repeated Galatians iii: 26-28. — Life and 
Times of Gardiner S;pring. 

The feminine element, so strong in all men of genius, was dom- 
inant in his social nature. This attracted him, as has been several 
times remarked, to women. The romantic devotion, the untiring 
faithfulness, the grace of his affection in the nearest relation made 
his daily life verdant with beauty. — Dr. CJianning. — Memoirs. 

Men require to be called, women to be attracted. . . . Few 
women ever go to Christ through the medium of mere doctrine. 
. . . God is love, and by her superior capacity of love woman 
is so much nearer God than man can ever be. — Ecce Deus, 



THE MINISTRY OF WOMEN. 429 

There was more of the woman in his nature than in that of any 
man I ever knew — more of woman's tenderness toward children 
and sympathy with them — . . . All dependent and inferiors 
loved him — boys, clerks, women and servants, as well as horses 
and dogs. — Andrew Jackson. — PaxtorCs Life. 

He was one of those in whom a feminine soul incarnates itself 
in a masculine body. The feminine principle in human nature, 
. . . is that which leads heavenward. There is a sex in souls 
as well as in bodies and they do not always coincide. 

. . . Lessing said, that nature intended woman to be her 
masterpiece, but she made a mistake in the clay, and took it a 
little soft. — Hedge on Channing. 

That none can enter the kingdom of heaven without becoming 
a little child^ — guileless and single-minded, is a sentiment long 
well-known. But behind and after this, there is a mystery re- 
vealed to but few, which, thou, O reader! must take to heart: 
namely, if thy soul is to go on into higher spiritual blessedness, 
it must become a woman ; yes, however manly thou be among 
men. It must learn to love being dependent; and must lean on 
God not solely from distress or alarm, but because it does not like 
independence or loneliness. — P. W. Netvman. 

The Egyptian was the husband of one wife, and she was re- 
garded as the honored mistress of the household ; the companion, 
not the slave or inferior of the man. In sculptures and paintings 
she is constantly seen sitting by his side ; she joins him in receiv- 
ing and welcoming guests, and freely takes her part in the occu- 
pations and enjoyments of social life. In the tombs and memorial 
chambers of the dead, husband and wife are still represented side 
by side. — The Pharaohs and their People. — By E. Berkley. Loti- 
don^ 1884. 

In Plutarch the wife is represented not as the mere housekeeper 
or as the chief slave of her husband, but as his equal and as his 
companion . — Lecky. 

Ardd ha-Nari^ or incarnation of Brahma, who is represented in 
sculptures as combining in himself the male and female organ- 
isms. — The Keys of the Creeds. 

Nearly all the Syrian, Egyptian and Italian gods have a 
double aspect, as well as Brahma, and, in the esoteric doctrine of 



430 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

the Cabala, even Jehovah, whose female aspect is represented by 
the " Shekinah." 

In the noblest men of history there has often been noticed 
something feminine, a gentleness which is not akin to weakness. 
— The Religion Settt. — Z>. G. Brinton. 

" The rights of women ! What are they ? 
The right to labor and to pray ; 
The right to comfort in distress ; 
The right, when others curse, to bless ; 
The right to love, when others scorn ; 
The right to comfort all who mourn; 
The right to shed new joy on earth ; 
The right to feel the soul's high worth; 
The right to lead the soul to God, 
Along the path her Saviour trod, — 
The path of ineekness and of love, 
The path of faith that leads above, 
The path of patience under wrong. 
The path in which the weak grow strong, — 
Such, — woman's right, and God will bless 
And grant support, or give success." 

I used to think there were instructions in the letters of the 
apostle Paul to the churches that might be needed then, but were 
hardly suited to our day. But the very things — special and pri- 
vate instructions in family duties, to husbands and wives — are just 
what are needed now. There are too many women who are as- 
suming too much, who forget the meaning and significance of 
God's ordinance of marriage, who forget or wilfully ignore their 
marriage vows. It is making untold misery in families, and these 
mistaken women will know some day, in this world or the next, 
that hidden evils are sometimes hidden sins. Also, how is it that 
so many who profess to be God's people, are training up no child- 
ren to come after them in the way of life, and so far leaving our' 
fair inheritance to be devoured by strangers .'' There are parts of 
the epistles which it would be well to read, mark and inwai'dly 
digest. — Cor. of Advocate and Guardian. 

PRE-NATAL INFANTICIDE. 

" Why dost thou call me — call me low.'' 
Why do I hear thee, when I know 
That thou art dead beneath the sod^ 
And thy dear Soul at rest -with Godf 



THE MINISTRY OF WOMEN. 431 

/ hear thee sobbing- under the sod, 

And I thought thy Soul at hotne -with God?'' — 

Oh! it Avas a weird, weird sight 

To see that Ladj in mournful plight, 

Holding the Babe so blue and thin — 

A span-long Babe of bones and skin ; 

And it looked in her face, and moaned and sobbed: 

" O cruel Mother! my Soul is robbed — 

Robbed of the Life that mine should be — 

Robbed of the Soul God meant for me : 

I lie in the grave, and weep and sigh — 

Alas that an Unborn Babe shoidd die I " 

♦' Now hold thy peace : how should it be 

That I have wrong-ed aught in thee? 

Oh ! cease to call me through the gloom — 

Lie down and rest in thy little tomb." — 

— " I may not rest — I may not sleep ; 

I have no Soul, dear God, to keep ; 

I have no sin to be forgiven — 

I have no sin to bar from Heaven. 

I sit me down at Heaven's gate, 

And for its opening watch and wait ; 

I see young children passing through, 

And but for thee, I might pass too ! 

An Earth-child now, by wild winds tossed. 

Oh! give me back the dear Soul lost: 

"Ah! thou wilt go to Heaven's gate. 

Where such as I must watch and wait; 

And the pure Angels, seeing me. 

Will know the sin that blackens thee. 

I have, no Soul — I knew no Life — 

Unwilling Mother ! faithless Wife ! 

And all my comfort, all my i^est, 

Are thus to lie upon thy breast; 

And I must call thee, call thee here. 

If I perchance may win a tear — 

A Mother's love — a Mother's kiss — 

In place of Heaven's eternal bliss. 

Hark! lay me in my damp, cold bed: 

I hear the bird sing overhead. 
And I must into darkness creep, 
And with the glowworm wake and sleep." 

I — Extract from the Defrauded Soul. 



CHAPTEE IX. 



THE SCRIPTURE AND THE PRINT. 

They that handle the pen of the writer. — Judges v: i/f.. 

How didst thou write all these words at his mouth? . . He 
pronounced all these words unto me with his mouth, and I wrote 
them with ink in the book. — Jer. xxxvi: iy-i8. 

This shall be written for the generation to come. — Ps. cii: i8^ 
I Samuel X : 2^. 

According to the revelation of the mystery which has been 
kept in silence through times eternal, but now is manifested, and 
through the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the com- 
mandment of the eternal God, is made known unto all the na- 
tions, unto obedience to the idMh.^Rom. xvi: 2^-26. 

Every Scripture — God-inspired is indeed profitable for teaching, 
for reproof, for correction, for culture in righteousness. — // Thn. 
Hi: 16. 

Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which 
are, and the things which shall be hereafter. — Rev. i: ig. 

What thou seest write in a book, and send to the seven churches. 
— Rev. i: 11. 

iv ypafpaiz dytaiq. — Rom. i: 2. rd Hpa ypafxiiara. — // Tim. 
Hi: 75. 

Scripta Litera manent. 

A specification of Christian instrumentalities would 
be very incomplete, which did not include scriptures 
of divine or human dictation, and their Jimitless re- 
duplication in the print. 

In the term scripture are included all written ex- 
position and advocacy of truth, — the book, the treatise, 



THE SPEECH AND ITS PRINT. 433 

the essay, the tract and the editorial, scientific state- 
ments and discussions, embodied creations of the 
imagination, — the poem, the story and the parable. 
By a lawful extension of application, the realization 
of beautiful ideals in architecture, sculpture and 
painting, — material combination and manipulation of 
physical forces wrought and illustrated in mechanical 
inventions, implements and machinery for helpful 
use, — as, for instance, the engine as motor through 
steam or electricity, might be included. They as well 
as language are representatives of truth or error, 
virtue or vice, for useful or pernicious purposes — in 
condensed and compact form. 

The preparation presupposes the exactest thought, 
the nicest discrimination, the soundest reasoning, the 
jus test sentiment, the precisest word, sentence and 
phrase, with the best collocation of which the elabo- 
rating mind is capable. 

The speech has an immediate effect upon hearers, 
which report of it in print cannot have on readers, — 
by tone and inflection, the glance of an eye, the quiv- 
ering of a muscle, the facade of an expression, — ges- 
ture, posture and action, with the auxiliary forces of 
circumstance and occasion, — driving through the re- 
cipient mind and heart the verbally embodied thought, 
sentiment and logic. But all these incidents of 
speech not translatable into language, not reportable 
at all, even the winged words themselves are fugitive 
in memory. The print of it continues to move read- 
ers in all time. The voice of the speaker, though 
eternally hushed, is ever made spiritually vocal in 

28 



434 THE CHBIST IN LIFE. 

thought for the charm and profit of mankind. " A 
book is the only immortality," somewhat sadly said 
the brilliant Kufus Choate, as he remembered his 
transient efforts at the bar, in political and legislative 
life. 

True: the Spirit seems to pervade hearts most 
readily through the extempore prayer and the oral 
discourse, — urging and appealing with unutterable 
request, irresistible persuasion. With like pungency 
truth may be accompanied when read, — its thought, 
its logic, its sentiment, its homily, its pathos be riv- 
eted through the apprehending soul as with bolts of 
steel. The Word of God Spiritually wielded is 
living and energic; sharper than any two-edged sword; 
piercing even to the sundering of soul and spirit, 
of joints and marrow; discerning the thoughts and 
intents of the heart. Heb. iv:]2. 

The substance of Paul's argument, Peter's ha- 
rangue, Stephen's arraignment, the mysticism of 
John, the homily of James remain as they were re- 
ported by themselves or hearers. The aroma of de- 
livery, the flavor of circumstance are gone. But the 
gist, — thought and appeal concreted in language 
remain ever to stir, rectify and purify humanity. 

The writings of Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Hop- 
kins and Jonathan Edwards fashioned and furbished 
modern theology, rather upon an exegesis of the 
special Paul than of the universal Jesus; with the 
rigidity of the Old Dispensation than the breadth 
and liberty of the New, — on the basis of the Deca- 
logue than upon the Sermon on the Mount. 

John Bunyan and Eichard Baxter were blessed 

\ 



THE MODERN POTENCY IN EVANGELIZATION. 435 

preachers for their time. The Pilgrim's Progress 
and The Saint's Eest are in their eternal round of 
preaching. 

Felicitous statement, apothegm, proverb, pithy say- 
ing circulating through a people by means of secular 
and religious prints, have wonderfully served to 
fashion, revolutionize and reconstruct public senti- 
ment. The reported obiter dictum of a jurist has 
sometimes been more effective than the litera of the 
law itself. The overthrow of the Jesuit organization 
in Europe was attributed to Pascal's Provincial Let- 
ters. The Encyclopedia was the legitimate product of 
the soil which ecclesiastics had made prolific in cor- 
ruption. Broadcast it went to harvest again in God- 
lessness and anarchy. It has proven difficult to 
thoroughly eradicate the thistle from the French soil. 
Ever and anon it thrusts up its pestilent head. 

If Jesus and His Apostles could have emitted from 
the commercial centers of the Eoman empire such 
daily and weekly issues as are now sent from Ameri- 
can cities and from the great city of London,^ how 
soon would the Gospel have been published to all 
men! In one day the entire new version of the New 
Testament was printed in Chicago dailies, and hun- 
dreds of thousands of the issue were sped in a few 
hours, to be read by recipients in millions of popula- 

I. In 1851, more than 12,000,000 copies of infidel publications, 
640,000 of them purely Atheistic, without reckoning newspapers, 
were issued from the London Press, besides 29,000,000 copies 
of immoral publications. They were more than all the publica- 
tions of the Bible, Tract and many other religious societies put 
together. — Theodore Christlieb. 



436 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

tion within a radius of two hundred miles, — some 
hied to every city and town in the United States, 
and to some English reader in every nation and com- 
munity. If bits of biography, fragments of history, 
and a few epistles through the Spirit have so served 
to cleanse and edify humanity, what auxiliaries might 
argument, exposition and appeal since have been, 
conjoined with bulletins of Christian triumphs, had 
they found reporters and the printing press, — the 
steamship and the railway to speed them in every 
direction! 

Where there is no press at all, or press not free, 
despotism is rank, government absolute, society sta- 
tionary or retrograde. If a people is able to organize 
on a popular basis, without it they soon pass under 
the yoke of despotism. 

Discussion is healthful in politics, morals and re- 
ligion. The thunder and lightning of the press when 
needed is vitalizing and ennobling. Light is cast 
upon public measures and official conduct. The char- 
acter, fitness and conduct of public servants or as- 
pirants for office are canvassed. Incapacity, unfitness, 
untrustiness and corruption cannot endure light — 
long escape detection. They must and will go to their 
place. 

Public opinion sways in civilized nations. The 
modern secular periodica? combines, voices and 
wields it. " The morning paper is the autocrat at the 
breakfast table." When not wielded in the interest 
of humanity, philanthropy and Christianity, it is more 
to be dreaded than mobs, pestilence or famine. Its 
virus pervades and is transmitted. A half dozen 



THE EFFICIENCY OF THE DAILY PRESS. 437 

presses, located in as many cities of our nation, have 
been able to revolutionize public sentiment — to com- 
bine and to wield it for certain purposes. 

The leading secular prints in the large cities of the 
United States are generally in advance of the religious 
ones in them, in breadth of topics handled and in 
freedom of discussion. If the public conduct, — even 
the private lives of candidates for the suffrages of 
their fellow-citizens, — specially of those who have 
previously succeeded in being elevated to office, are 
not able to endure scrutiny, they will be blown away 
like chaff in the sirocco of a single campaign — con- 
signed thereafter to political oblivion. A political 
aspirant must have some strength, some capacity for 
the office, for the trust sought, — some good repute 
morally, — have been tolerably consistent, straightfor- 
ward in his public or private career, — free from ter- 
giversation, crookedness in speech or conduct, or he 
will soon go down in the sweep of the merciless 
Reapers — the secular Press. 

The condition, financial, moral, spiritual, of the 
large cities and of the counties of which they are 
centers, would be hopelessly deplorable were it not 
for the daily secular prints in them. They are more 
effective in the detection and exposure of corruption, 
fraud and crime, individual, official and corporate, 
than the police and constabulary forces in them. 
Their reporters are ubiquitous day and night, vigi- 
lant, sharp-eyed. These cities have been and still 
are receptacles for the scum, the refuse and the vicious 
of Europe. On delivery to these shores, with effront- 
ery they claim and exercise the suffrage. Instinct- 



438 THE CHRIST IN LII'E. 

ively they scent plunder near or afar, in prospect or 
anticipation. Demagogues — political self-seekers 
cater for their votes, and unblushingly purchase them 
if necessary. Official robberies have been abundant 
as private burglaries in proportion to numbers 
and opportunities. As fast as one gang is exposed 
and driven to their "place," another is able to install 
itself in the same positions through the votes of these 
ignorant and depraved. The main reliance for the 
detection, ejection, perhaps punishment of these vil- 
lains is in the Daily Press. Such corruption in these 
United States will continue, so long as there is unre- 
stricted suffrage, — the supremacy of law and order is 
not maintained, — personal liberty is not inviolate. 
This Government is still on trial. Its perpetuity is 
not yet assured. 

In all conflicts between right and wrong, most of 
these prints are quick to espouse the right. Offenses 
in or outside of churches are not condoned. Ecclesi- 
astical liars or thieves are treated with no more con- 
sideration or leniency than secular ones. Official of- 
fenders of either class are driven by them into the 
pillory of public scorn, or into the clutches of judges 
and jurors, to answer for their crimes, — hopeless as 
is often the prospect of a just result through Court 
trials — ever expensive and protracted for the suffer- 
ing people, so uncertain, incomprehensive and indefi- 
nite is the law in application, so unscrupulous are 
hireling if not purchasable attorneys, so absurd and 
farcical are statutes for the impanelling of a jury, so 
incomprehensible at times is its verdict. Therefore, 
these dailies should be properly appreciated and 



THEIR INSTEUMENTALITY FOR EVANGELIZATION. 439 

strengthened by the community they thus serve, the 
comparatively few mistakes they make be overlooked, 
and the personal wrongs they sometimes inflict be 
pardoned on proper and possible reparation. 

By their prompt and complete reports of religious 
meetings, by the large space they devote to religious 
intelligence, by their general circulation in religious 
families, — a circulation very much larger than that of 
the religious papers themselves — representatives of 
the sects to which they belong, by their ability to 
reach the masses of the people in every direction out- 
side of church membership, it is believed, they are 
more efficient for evangelization than all the religious 
hebdomadals combined. True: evil influences are 
borne with the good. The secular print is a chron- 
icler of daily events. The Bible itself is a condensed 
summary of good and evil deeds. None seem to 
have been suppressed for fear the record would de- 
file. It does not give details or salacious embellish- 
ment. Vice to be hated needs sometimes to be seen. — 
To be shunned, its evils for time need to be apparent, 
and thus the eternal outcome be foreshadowed. 
Youth cannot be prepared for temptation and indu- 
rated for resistance to evil in ignorance and seclusion. 
Doubtless, such enterprise, vigilance and assiduity are 
remunerative. Men are divinely moved to serve 
by conduct in life for the transformation and 
ennobling of humanity through various considera- 
tions, — ethical or religious impulsion, natural or gra- 
ciously acquired, — through the stimulation of self- 
interest, — through the sway of both in equal or 
unequal combination. "What then?" as said the 



440 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

Apostle, "in every way, whether in pretense or in 
truth, Christ is proclaimed, and therein I rejoice. 
Yea, and I will rejoice." 

Every religious or Christian denomination has its 
"organ" to specially represent, enforce and propagate 
its peculiarities, and for the general advocacy of truth. 
With grand and noble exceptions in the largest cities, 
some, if not many, are chiefly sectarian exponents, — 
too often the mouth-pieces of the ruling influences.^ 
This is a necessary result from the fact that the pat- 
rons are chiefly restricted to the denominational circle. 
The periodicals will not always be taken for their in- 
trinsic worth, but because they professedly represent 
the favorite sect and chronicle its movements and 
progress. If they are conducted so as to displease 
"leading brethren," or are not in harmony with their 
measures, their doom is only a question of time. The 
main hope, under God, of religious progress inside or 
outside of the sects represented, so far as it can be 
attained through the instrumentality of these heb- 
domadals, is in those that have become so well-estab- 
lished as not to be dependent on any class of religion- 
ists who may prevail on the subscription list, and are 
therefore able to be defiant of any attempted dictation 
by them. It is a matter of regret, that there is not 
in these various "organs" more fearlessness in exam- 
ination and discussion of the measures and the ad- 
ministration of representative officials, as is charac- 

I. There are multitudes of good, sound, orthodox papers that 
have much merit in them ; but the}^ carry the spirit of sectarian- 
ism, and the narrow, selfish and oftentimes venomous spirit of 
religious contention into the household. — H. W. Beecher. 



CANDOR AND INDEPENDENCE OF THE PRESS. 441 

teristic of the secular press. That discussion, of 
course, should be temperate and just. The theory of 
Christianity requires that the derelictions of the offi- 
cial, as of the unofficial, should be corrected, — pri- 
vately if it can be, publicly if it must be. But the 
tendency is to hush, to compromise, as if fidelity, 
frankness and plain dealing were not always the 
wisest, the most expedient! 

When such periodicals are owned and controlled 
by Boards or Societies or stockholders, they are held 
or gravitate to intense conservatism. Nothing is per- 
mitted to enter them, that will disturb sectarian quiet, 
ecclesiastical placidity, imperil the treasury. They 
are or become mere denominational bulletins, barom- 
eters of the sectarian weather, hurdy-gurdies of the 
officials who conduct them. 

One such absorbed during its existence, in expenses 
above its own receipts, some $50,000 or more con- 
tributed chiefly for missionary purposes by the self- 
denying. If the " organ " had been devoted to strictly 
missionary topics, instead of as a medium for the 
ventilation of individual hobbies, political, literary 
and archaeological, — the absorption of such an amount 
might have been spiritually economic. 

While the potency of sectarian "organs" in their 
special spheres for very much good is admitted, are 
not their candor and independence below the average 
of the sect they professedly represent? Is it not one 
of their chief occupations to ascertain the drift of de- 
nominational sentiment before turning their prows in 
the same direction? Doubtless, such discretion is 
wise and commendable for such purpose. Are they 



442 THE CHEIST IN LIFE. 

SO etherial as to be inconsiderate of the monetary 
question, — as are not the secular prints? Will it pay? 
will it damage? Many good men, as well as good 
prints, do not deem it prudent to improve every occa- 
sion in contention for the truth and in standing for 
the right. The Apostle Paul would have proved a 
very unwise editor for a religious newspaper. 

Besides: some of these weeklies are exposed to the 
criticism of being conducted excessively in the inter- 
ests of ministerial leaders or officials whom they fear 
or court. Extravagant utterances respecting persons 
or measures will run through the circuit of "organs" 
fron^ Dan to Beersheba. A bugle blast on the At- 
lantic will be echoed at the Lakes. The "regular 
correspondent" at each of the sectional centers or 
large cities is generally a genial brother. At the in- 
stance and urgency of the interested parties, he is 
ready to shed floods of inky encomiums on the heads 
of self-seeking aspirants, — it may be, denominational 
idols. Rev. Dr. Tomtum, a young-fledged Rabbi, 
just D. D.'d by the "Seminary," has resigned his po- 
sition as Pastor of the "Jerusalem " church in "Great- 
town," after a most brilliant and successful pastorate 
of perhaps three or ^yb years — against the persistent 
remonstrances of his church, the exceedingly great 
regret of his brethren generally, and the common 
lamentations of the community at large. It is feared 
that his like will not be looked upon again. From an 
imperative sense of duty, at the cost of much feeling 
and great material sacrifice, he has concluded to ac- 
cept the unanimous and unexpected call from the 
"Hallelujah" church in "Big-town" — though the truth 



MISSION OF THE GENIAL "CORKESPONDENT." 443 

was, he had angled for it — equal in all respects, if 
not superior to "Jerusalem" in "Great-town," on a 
salary of a:^,000 dollars in gold. There, it is believed, 
he will have an ample field for the display and still 
further development of his special abilities. Most 
auspicious results are anticipated. The "Bigtown" 
church has great reason to congratulate herself, and 
is congratulated on the treasure she has secured. The 
grievous loss of "Great-town" is the jubilant gain of 
"Bigtown." The "corresponding" or the editorial 
greeting is; Brethren! Timothy (if not Paul or 
Apollo) is about to come among you. See that his 
"coming be without fear,*' if it becomes his duty to 
lamm you. Then appears in all these weekly prints 
of the denominational circuit a long string of resolu- 
tions from the bereaved church shrouded in sorrow, 
certifying to the extraordinary capacity, sainthood 
and past success of the pastor who has left her. 

Now: the truth is with respect to the majority of 
such cases, there is entire misrepresentation. It 
may not be intentional on the part of the genial cor- 
respondent. He may not be cognizant of the facts. 
The draft, drift and tone of the statements were man- 
ufactured for him by the interested shepherd. The 
culpability lies in being thus made an instrument of 
a vain, shallow, but ambitious brother, in giving cur- 
rency and sanction to statements whose accuracy he 
did not carefully ascertain before he gave them pub- 
licity and official sanction. Generally, in such cases 
the brother was compelled to resign. Many long 
months, perhaps years, the disaffected church had as- 
pired for the termination of the relation. With all 



4M THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

the facilities and weaponry, overt and covert, his po- 
sition gave him, he fought to avert the end as long as 
he could. It having come at last, this exaggeration — 
misrepresentation in the denominational Press have 
been studiedly elaborated to cover up the deprecated, 
in fact the compulsory resignation, — to counteract the 
damaging effects of the facts should they reach "Big- 
town," and to gi-ve him prestige there. 

Eeal intellectual, moral and spiritual worth will 
not tolerate such sycophantic adulation. It prefers 
to let character and professional success herald them- 
selves. What can be more offensive to humble. 
Godly, truly distinguished men than fulsome, indis- 
criminate, baseless panegyric? Was ever the sem- 
blance of such folly discerned in Paul? — any of the 
distinguished Heralds of the Cross — the dead or liv- 
ing since? 

Unpopularity, — want of success, so styled and esti- 
mated, in a particular field, are not necessarily indica- 
tive of infidelity in service or life, — of mental, moral, 
spiritual or educational deficiency, unfitness, inade- 
quacy for a position, — oft-times are rather the reverse, 
— the best indication of the possession of intellectual 
and moral worth, and of fidelity in the ministerial 
work. What has been the irreversible verdict re- 
specting the dismission of Jonathan Edwards by his 
church in Northampton ? A great, good man does 
not suffer himself to be unduly disturbed, long dis- 
comfited by the judgment of a fallible church, made 
up of unsanctified materials, or whose ruling influ- 
ences are worldly. A weak-minded, vain, superficial, 
secularized person may be. The world is wide. Op- 



THE MIGHTY AGENCY OF THE PEESS. 445 

portunities for usefulness are as wide. "With me," 
said the lofty-minded, great-hearted Apostle, " with 
me it is a very small thing that I should be judged 
of you, or of man's judgment: yea, I judge not mine 
own self, . . but He that judgethme is theLord." 

Besides the absolute immorality of this carefully 
elaborated correspondence, — ostensibly from some 
disinterested party afar, and of the titillating refer- 
ences of the editor himself, they are in themselves 
unjust relatively to the great body of silent, unobtru- 
sive, but effective workers, whose existence and labors 
are for the most, part ignored in these "organs." 
"The noble, silent men," says Carlyle, "scattered 
here and there, silently working, whom no morning 
newspaper makes mention of, are the salt of the 
earth." 

With all its infirmities and exposedness to the 
dreaded sway of the vicious and self-seeking, — it is 
evident, the Press is ordained of God to be a mighty 
agency in the evangelization of men. It behooves 
those who aspire for participation in this divine work, 
and are pressed with the realization of personal re- 
sponsibility thereto, to avail themselves to the fullest 
extent of such an instrumentality. No expenditure 
of money, men, graces, gifts and culture can be too 
great in its employment. The Written Word is the 
Broadsword of the Spirit. Christian Periodicals 
ought to be its Scimitars. Smite mightily, O sturdy 
Divider of soul and spirit! Flash, O Damask-Blade 
keen and fleet! Consider, O sluggish believer! O 
laggard Christian! consider the foresight of the 
world, its intense energy, its mighty enterprise in the 



446 THE CHRIST IN LIFE. 

use of these potencies. Art thou come to the king- 
dom at such a time as this! The thundering engines 
that drive these presses roar night and day in the 
service. They placard the earth or strew it with their 
issues. 

He who would reach others beyond the touch of 
his hand, the glance of his eye, the sound of his 
voice, — and the millions cannot thus be reached, — he 
who would bring the pulsations of his soul, the throb 
of truth, the voice of his Master, the whisper of the 
Spirit through the letter into contact with the life- 
currents of benighted ones, crushed down, unspeak- 
ably wretched, despairful, in the extremity of spiritual 
death itself, — myriads there are of such, — must send 
them the Leaves of the Tree which are for the healing 
of the nations. Let them be sped over the interven- 
ing oceans fleeter than the clouds before the drive of 
the winds. Let them drop down upon them thicker 
than the shower of autumnal leaves in the forest 



THE LIGHT OF LIFE 

By J. L. BATCHELDER. 

(i6mo. pp. 388.) 



CONTENTS. 

Chapter I.— God— a Spirit, Person, Father. 
II.— Scriptures— God-Inspii'ed. 
III.— The Situation, Past and Present. 
IV.— God in Christ— a Necessity, Possible and Probable, 
v.— Miracles — Credible and Rational. 
VI.— Revelation through the Spirit. 
VI [.-The Divine Call. 
Vin.— The Treasure in Earthen Vessels. 
IX.— The Esthetics of Speech. 
X.— Fishers of Men. 
XI.— Fidelity in the Pulpit. 
XII. -A Holy Life. 
XIII.— Prayer. 

The purpose and spirit of this work deserve high commendation. 
It will prove interesting and useful to many readers.- C7ucagro Tribune. 

The reader is sure of meeting good thoughts and bright sayings, 
and of being in the company of an author who thinks for himself, and 
on lines which lead in the right direction, and to the highest results.— 
N. T. Independent. 

This volume is a vigorous statement and defense of the truth as 
Interpreted from the Scriptures, and very suggestive for the thought- 
ful reader. The truth is strongly stated and vigorously defended with 
the collateral support of scores of able writers.— Boston Zion's Herald. 

A book, which contains much interesting and helpful reading in 
regard to some of the prof oundest thoughts about God and the soul, 
which have ever engaged the minds of men. His quotations are rev- 
erential and purposeful.— C/iicago iV. W. Christian Advocate. 

An eminently practical work in the best sense of the word— not 
only presenting in a very pleasing way the doctrines of the gospel, but 
as an enforcement of those doctrines, it discusses certain current 
questions which present or involve the authority of the Bible as the 
Word of God. In view of the semi-infidelity and rationalism of the 
day, we regard the book as timely, and can commend it to a wide cir- 
culation.— Cin. Herald and Presbyter. 

We have examined this book with much satisfaction. The author's 
own thoughts are expressed in language clear, pure and vigorous. We 
regard the book as one of much value, healthful in tone, and full of 
profound thought.— Cin. Christian Standard. 

It is a discussion of great religious principles, with some practical 
applications. There is in it much which is useful and commendable. 
—Boston Congregationalist. 

A thesaurus of valuable opinion upon many of the questions most 
vital in our Christianity. — Chicago Baptist Standard. 

It is a volume of more than ordinary value. The author has gath- 
ered material from an unusually wide range. We know of no one now 



THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 



addressing the public, with the exception of Jos. Cook, who has used 
more wisely the material of writers, ancient and modern, representing- 
the sciences, the philosophies, and the theologies of almost all ages, 
than has Mr. Batchelder. The subjects which it touches are such as 
come up in the life and questionings of every Christian, and the ev- 
idence brought forward to sustain that faith— known as the common 
and evangelical, are almost invaluable.— Chicago Cong. Advance. 

The quotations . . . are remarkably well selected, and very in- 
teresting. As a collection of choice excerpts on theological and homi- 
letieal subjects, the work is unique.— iV. Y. Christian Union. 

It comprises a zealous defense of Christianity, and a most elaborate 
exposition of Christian doctrines. A remarkable feature of the book 
is the grouping of complementary excerpts from the greatest philos- 
ophers, theologians, and thinkers the world has known. These are 
properly placed for convenient reference, and they reveal an extraor- 
dinarily wide range of reading on the part of the author. — Chicago 
Current. 

Is a very enjoyable book. The author does his 6wn thinking, on 
themes most important and timely, and fortifies himself by a very op- 
ulent and unusually discriminating collection of quotations from the 
leading authors of ancient and modern times. We shall make use of 
this book for the enrichment of our department of " Memorabilia " in 
Christian Thought, etc.— Christian Thought (N. Y.), Jan. and Feb. 1885. 

The author has amassed a great variety of valuable matter, and 
the book certainly represents a vast amount of reading and study. 
Some of the chapters are exceedingly valuable, and the book is quite 
strong on the side of historical Christianity.— TTie Universalist, Chicago 
and Cincinnati. 

This book discusses vital questions with enthusiasm, and so it con- 
stitutes a zealous defence of the whole system of faith. The author 
displays a wide reading.— Homiietic Review, N. Y. 

It is a valuable hand book for every student of theology. There 
are passages in it of exceeding beauty and force. The general doc- 
trines taught will commend themselves to evangelical Christians of 
every name. — Rev. D. B. Cheney, D. D. 

Is a perfect thesaurus of pertinent and valuable quotations anent 
living questions inreligionand theology. The book shows a wide range 
of reading, and a careful sifting of materials. The gems are threaded 
on the themeof the author in a unique and coherent, though not very 
systematic fashion. He shows himself competent for severe and acute 
ratiocination, and yet seems to prefer using the words of others, where 
they suit his purpose, rather than work their thought over in the furn- 
ace of his own mind. . . . His views are bi-oad and liberal, his lan- 
guage burning with conYiGtion.— Missionary Record, St. Louis. 

Price $i,50f postage prepaid. Three copies for $3.00. To 
Clergymen, $1.00. Address 

J. L. BATCHELDER, Publisher, 

817 Washington Boulevard, Chicago 111. 






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